Backup/Storage - Best option

[rich998]

I've been doing an occasional backup of my management software and also my documents folder, but nothing massive.

Would I be better off continuing this method with a small USB WD Passport drive, or would I be better off running some sort of on-line backup. Really, if things go bad, I expect it would be better to have a complete mirror of the drive on my PC in the office? I don't mind spending a small amount on this.

 

[ledinhhieu2008]

i think backup/storage online is good. you can backup some file or forder on google driver or medifire. it's free for 5 gb.

 

[Jon-Cloud9]

I have used and can recommend both Dropbox and Mozy. If you're worried about privacy, you can combine these with something like Truecrypt to effectively backup an encrypted file.

There are others - Sugarsync, Box etc. Most of them have some kind of free trial/free allowance, so try them out and see how you get on.

Whatever method you end up using, you should always have an up-to-date copy of your data offsite. A fire or theft would be bad enough, but there's no need to lose your business data along with it. You can replace and rebuild a computer in a day. Its your data which is so valuable.

Hope this helps...

Thanks

Jon

 

[confusedstarter]

If your business depends on the information, don't depend on a free solution that could disappear tomorrow.

Support for free solutions tends to be self service and if that doesn't work they tend not to care all that much.

 

[rich998]

I was looking around for a suitable solution and found Carbonite. Think I may try this once I've sorted out the PC at work on Monday.

I just need to find a good multi function printer and then I'm sorted!

 

[Jon-Cloud9]

Nice one. Having a good backup is so important. I don't know the Carbonite software, but if there is an option to flag up/email you when it has a problem backing up a file, then make sure you set that and don't ignore it. Some files it may struggle with (eg if you have Outlook open at the time it tries to back it up). Just make sure that any file that fails to backup more than once has a reason (or isn't an important file)

If I can make one more recommendation - every couple of months or so, set aside an hour or so, and just make sure the backup is working as you expect - Are the files you expect contained in the backup? Do they go back as far as you expect? Is anything missing? Then try renaming a file on your hard drive and restoring it from the backup. Is it easy? How long does is take?

Backups are nothing if you can't restore the data you need when you need it, and the last thing you want is to have to explain to your boss why you can't get the files back. Restoring someone's file they thought they had lost forever is the quickest way in IT I know of becoming a hero!

 

[cardiffcreative]

I have seen many occasions when someone who meticulously backs up to an external drive looses everything. A photographer I met was unlucky enough to loose everything after lightening struck her house, taking out the computer and the still attached external hard drive! At least use Dropbox to create a second backup of your most important data.

 

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

If you've got a small amount of data then a free offering could be OK for you, but they are limited in terms of what they offer... a professional online backup service will give you a retention period (usually say 30 days or more), meaning that if you accidentally change a file but don't realise until 3 weeks later, you'll still have a copy of the unchanged file from 3 weeks ago stored - you don't get features like that on free services. Just food for thought...

Prices for professional backup are super-cheap these days with the technology we use...

Cheers

Ryan

 

[LeAnn79]

Would I be better off continuing this method with a small USB WD Passport drive, or would I be better off running some sort of on-line backup. Really, if things go bad, I expect it would be better to have a complete mirror of the drive on my PC in the office? I don't mind spending a small amount on this.

Depends. Offsite (online) backup is great for small amounts of data and offers good security as a whole but it always good to have a full backup locally so that you can access it quickly at any moment and maybe do incremental backups weekly.
We started using a combination of the two methods at work – Dropbox for some of the docs that need to be accessed out of the office and Praetorian Guard for our onsite backups. There are plenty of articles on the subject “offsite vs onsite backups” check them out as well to get a full picture of the pros and cons of both methods.

 

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

Online backup is great for any size of backup; you can access it anywhere and immediately, and you don't have the human input needed with an on-site manual backup...

Another benefit of online backup is the retention period, i.e. being able to go a certain amount of days/weeks/months to find previously altered files... with the on-site method you're suggesting, once you've changed a file (or accidentally deleted it) and then performed a backup to the external HDD, you've lost the ability to go back to the previous versions of the file or lost the file completely.

If you suffered a total loss of your office and hardware, you could move the backup into a virtual environment (i.e. Virtual Desktop or Virtual Private Server) and access it in the Cloud as if it was in your (now destroyed) office, enabling pure business continuity... an on-site backup solution isn't going to be able to do that for you...

Obviously I'm biased but I truly think the benefits of cloud backup far outweigh on-site backup...

Cheers

Ryan

 

[chip_y2kuk]

The idea of a backup is to help get back up and running in the event of the worst happening.

that would include:

building collapse
theft
fire
flood
other catastrophic event

now the problem with having one drive kept onsite god forbid their's a fire and everything is destroyed, your backup is also up in smoke

the problems with a small hard drive are:

you have to remember to plug them in (in order for the backup to run)
the computer has to be on for the backup software to run


with a good online backup solution

The software runs every hour or so
backs up in the background
requires an internet connection
PC can be destroyed you can still restore the data to another machine when available
is offsite so fire,flood,theft,natural disaster, building collapse are all covered

joe

 

[JohnGeek]

I've been doing an occasional backup of my management software and also my documents folder, but nothing massive.

Would I be better off continuing this method with a small USB WD Passport drive, or would I be better off running some sort of on-line backup. Really, if things go bad, I expect it would be better to have a complete mirror of the drive on my PC in the office? I don't mind spending a small amount on this.

I use and recommend you Handy Backup. It provides both backup software and online backup services. It's very easy to use and reliable backup solution.
Hope it will work for you too.

 

[NeilT]

On-line backup is a must for those looking to protect data in the event of:

• Hard drives crashing (they don't last forever)
• Accidental deleting of files
• Theft
• Fire

to name but a few.

On-line backup store your files 'off-site' and in our case are encrypted and stored using secure UK only data centres (2 for redundancy).

If your data is critical to either your business or personal needs then you should considering off-site storage.

For the non-technical people, software is installed on your computer(s) and server you then browse to the folders and files you wish to backup. You can then set which days you wish the files to be backed-up and time of day. So a typical set-up would be every week day set to a time when your computer is on, for servers around 1am. The important bit is setting the data retention which is how long 'deleted' copies are kept for before they are overwritten or removed from the system.

As you can see this is a 'set and forget' method as we are all busy and if you manually copy data daily, you just know that the time you forget to do it is when the disaster happens.

We provide on-line backup from 1Gb to 1TB with free trials for 30 days (no obligation).

For those with large amounts of data you should consider a feed approach, which is coping your data to a disk and sending it by courier direct to the data centre for upload otherwise it could take days to upload your data via the internet.

Hope this helps.

 

[leemason]

Online backup is invaluable for the reasons already outlined by others here. It can be useful to take a local backup as well for ease and quick restore. Many online backup systems will allow the taking of a local backup at the same time as the online backup. The local backup can be used to easily restore accidentally deleted files but you always have the online backup for real disasters.