Do you have a data backup and recovery plan in place? Most people think that it takes a lot of time, money and/or technical knowledge to implement a data backup solution on a home computer. Data backup and recovery is actually a very simple process that even the most inexperienced computer user can handle.
Why Do I Need to Backup My Files?
Have you ever lost all your photos, documents, email addresses and internet favorites because your hard drive crashed? Have you ever lost everything on your computer because a virus corrupted your operating system? Computer disasters are very common and if you’re not prepared for the worst, your precious files will likely be lost forever when you have a hard disk or virus problem.
Three Easy Methods of Data Backup and Recovery
- Manual Backup
- You can easily backup all your documents yourself if you by simply copying all your data files onto a separate hard drive, CD, DVD or large USB flash drive. Assuming you are storing all your data in your “My Documents” folder, just copy this entire folder to another storage source and you’re done.
The biggest downside to this method is that you need to remember to do this on a regular basis. Unless you are a more advanced computer user, you may have difficulty finding and copying data that is not included within “My Documents”. - Backup Software
- Backup software for home computers is fairly inexpensive (under $100) and makes the data backup and recovery process a simple “point and click” process. After installing the software, you create a “backup job” which includes all the data files, email files, program specific files, favorites and other data you want to back up.
Most people save their data backup jobs to a CD, DVD or second hard disk. You can choose to manually start the backup or schedule it to occur automatically. Data recovery is a piece of cake when you use backup software. You simply create a “recover” job and point to the backup job that you want to restore from. The biggest downside to backup software is that you need to either remember to run your backup job regularly or you need to be sure to leave your computer on during the times you have scheduled the data backup job to run automatically. - Remote Backup and Recovery
- The easiest and most convenient method of data backup is to subscribe to a remote backup service. With this method, your data is backed up to a server that “lives” on the internet. After subscribing and downloading the remote backup software, you simply create a “backup job” that includes all the files you want to back up. Once you have submitted this job, a full backup is started at once. Because it is a lot slower to back up data over the internet, it may take a couple of days to back up all your files (depending on how much data you have and the speed of your internet connection). Once everything is backed up, the remote backup process constantly scans your computer for new or modified files, and these are backed up constantly. Restoring files is just as simple. Just access the “restore” function from the remote backup interface and select the files you want to restore.
Remote backup is great for people who don’t have a second hard drive, a DVD-RW drive or a CD-RW drive. It’s also the perfect solution for folks who have more data than a CD or DVD will hold. The downside to using remote backup is that you have to have a high speed internet connection. Remote backup can cost anywhere between a few dollars a month to several hundred dollars a year, depending on which service you choose.
Recommended Backup Solutions
- Bounceback Pro Backup Software is an excellent backup and recovery program for home and small business computer users. Bounceback Pro is easy to use and even includes reminders to help you remember to do your backup.
- Carbonite Online Backup is an inexpensive, reliable, easy-to-use remote backup and recovery system. At only $5 a month for unlimited storage, Carbonite is the best bargain on the internet.
- The 300GB DiskGO External USB Hard Drive & Reader is my recommendation for an external hard drive. At less than $200, this huge hard drive has the capacity to last you for many, many years and is sure to hold as much data as you could possibly want to store. As an added bonus, this external hard drive features 2 extra USB ports as well as a multi-card flash card reader. It is really three devices in one (external hard drive, USB hub and multi-card reader), making it a great value for the money.
