Data Backup Solutions

Imagine you are sitting at your computer looking through all your digital photos. Ah, memories. You look at pictures of your kids when they were babies, then toddlers, and now grown kids. They are stored on your computer and you can look at them at anytime.

Suddenly, the power goes out and your computer shuts off. Thinking nothing about it, you wait for the power to come back on and you restart your computer. You press the power button and the computer powers on, but doesn't load the operating system. A bunch of errors appear on the screen, but nothing loads - your hard drive has crashed. All data you had stored on the drive is gone. All pictures you had are gone, and without copies, you will never see them again.

This happens on a regular basis, and is something that can be avoided. Most of us now use digital cameras for capturing the special moments, and then store them on our hard drives. What many people probably don't do is thing about developing a data backup plan.

A data backup plan is simply a series of steps that keeps your data safe and protected so if you do lose the original data, you can easily restore the backed up copies. Implementing such a plan isn't difficult, and can be done by anyone. Let's take a look at different ways you can develop your own backup plan.

When developing a good data backup plan, there are several points to consider to ensure you data remains protected. While the points listed below aren't cast in stone, ensure you plan incorporates as many of them as possible, will provide you with them most robust plan you can create.

1. Make multiple copies of your data. While you are making a copy of your data when you backup your files, it is important to make two or more copies to provide the most security. We all know that nothing lasts forever, so what happens if you need to restore your data and found out that your backed up files are corrupted? Making multiple copies of the same files can provide a better chance of recovering your files.


2. Move your files to another location. When you do backup your data, ensure that the backed up files are stored in the same location as the original. Physically move the media holding your backed up data to another building or city. This greatly reduces the chance that you will lose both the original and backed up data if something was to happen to the building containing both sets of data. So it is always important to include offsite data backup into your plan.


3. Don't buy cheap media. With computers, if you buy cheap, you get cheap. This is especially true with optical (DVD or CD) discs. When it comes to your data, you should invest in some high-quality media to store your data. Look into Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim, or Sony for optical discs. The discs from these companies are known for their reliability and quality.

While the above points don't need to be implemented in your backup plan, I suggest that when you do develop your plan you utilize as many of these points as possible. The more you implement the above points the better chance you have of keeping your data.

In the previous section I talked about a number of points you should consider when developing your data backup plan. Now I will discuss the media and methods that you can use that can help you achieve your goal of protecting your files.

I provide a list of options for you to explore when you think about developing your backup plan. All the options listed below are easy to find and use, so you will be able to find at least a few things that will work for you.

1. External Hard Drives. This is perhaps one of the best solutions that is easy to implement and contains the most space out of any of the options. External hard drives are now available in over 1 TB of storage space, which will be more than enough for the average user. Keep in mind, however, that you should also choose a more removable media that can easily be transport offsite in conjunction with an external hard drive.


2. Optical discs (DVD or CD). This option has been around for many years and it is very easy for anyone to burn data to an optical disc. It is also very difficult to find a computer sold today that doesn't include a CD or DVD burner. Keep in mind, however, that there is a severe storage space limitation for CD discs, and a 4.7 GB limit for standard DVD discs. Also, only use high-quality media (see above) when using optical discs for storage. You can easily transport these discs offsite to keep your data safe.


3. USB Flash Drives. The new kid on the block, and provides more storage space than an optical disc, and is growing each year. Sizes are now over 64 GB for the higher-capacity versions, but they are fairly pricey compared to an external hard drive. If you can afford the price, or are patient enough to wait for the prices to drop, I recommend you look into storing your data on one of these drives. Their small size makes them ideal for storing your data offsite.


4. Online data backup. This is a fairly new method of backing up your data, and does require a high-speed internet connection. There are many plans and packages available from many vendors, and you will need to shop around for the one that is right for you. Some even offer unlimited storage space for a fixed monthly price. There are many advantages of using an online data backup provider, which I won't go into here, but some include your data being offsite, and the ability to automatically backup your data.

While the above list is complete by any means, it does provide you with several options you can look at when protecting your files.

Online Backup Options

• Unlimited Online Backup for only $4.95 a month


• Are you at risk of losing irreplaceable files? Onsite backup is not enough. Choose the Carbonite Online Backup Service!

While it is very important to backup your data, it is equally as important to ensure you know how to protect that data. If you can't implement your plan, who is your data going to be protected?

Make sure you understand how your backup plan works. From start to finish, know what data needs to be backed up, where it will be stored, and how it will get there. Failure to understand any of these steps could put your data at risk.

For those just starting out, start with technology you know and understand. For example, if you know how to burn optical discs (DVD or CD), then implement a backup plan that copies your files to an optical disc. Burn at least two copies, and then physically move that disc to another building. With this type of plan, you have created redundant data and have moved your data offsite.

Data backup plans don't have to be complex, just practical. Once you are familiar with backing up your data, you can then modify your plan to include other backup methods, such as online backup.

You can even have several plans. For example, a personal digital photo backup plan or agenealogy data backup plan. In the end, however, the plan, or plans, must work for you.