Some things to consider when thinking about your backup and disaster recovery solution(s):

1. What happens if I delete a file?
2. Where is my email stored and is it backed up?
3. What if my computer crashes? Even if my data is saved how long will it take me to rebuild my computer to a functioning state?
4. Is all of my backup data located in the same physical location?
5. Will a catastrophe wipe out my backup solution i.e. a fire?
6. Does my business count on any one system for business critical functions? How long can my business operate without a functioning system? Does my current backup solution accomodate that expectation?
7. Does someone in our company know how to retrieve information off backups?
8. Are my backups tested so I know they work?
9. Are my backups monitored so I know if they are ever failing?
10. Is the backup data media (i.e. hard drives or tapes) transferred in a secure, controlled manor since it contains all data for my entire business?

This list covers about 1/4 of the questions that you should review when it comes to a practical backup and disaster recovery solution so if you haven’t asked yourself these questions, start today!  If you are confused, contact a local computer services provider which should be able to assist your company.

First is the price. Most online backup services are priced about the same, around per month, which you can opt to pay monthly or at the discounted annual fee. But that’s just for the basic service. You can also avail of other additional services like network backup for an added fee. On the other hand, there are also online backup services that come for free, for some companies on a limited trial basis, and for others, for a limited storage capacity. While these offers are not uncommon and are done for promotional purposes, be wary of those backup services that are offered at no cost at all. While they need not cost a lot, the online backup solutions shouldn’t come totally free or you would wonder how the company can give reliable service.

File accessibility is also another factor to consider. Being able to retrieve your files immediately would not be such a major issue if you’re just looking to have copies of old photos printed, but for a student who needs access to his notes as soon as possible or for an office employee who sometimes brings work at home, even a day of waiting could be too long. You would therefore want an online backup service that can best respond to this need. Different online storage companies have varying policies when it comes to file restoration so be sure to raise these concerns before signing up.

You also want to make sure that you can use the software that most of these companies require you to work with. Since each company has its own system, you  often have to deal with different levels of user-friendliness. If the program you have to work with is written in a hard to understand way or even extremely technical, you may not be able to work with it. The idea of backing up online is to give you the protection you need without wasting your time so be sure the  company has a decent backup wizard in their software suite.

Lastly, you need a secure service. Most companies offer encryption of your stored information as it travels between your computer and theirs. However, some companies can offer more than that. You can find companies which scatter your files across their services making it impossible for any outsider to decipher any important information. You may also choose to put a password on your files. All these added services work together to give you the top-level security that you need. But to make sure that a service is right for your needs, just read a few reviews, like the Carbonite backup review.

Traditional ways of backing up one’s files have been developed over the years, and for many people, these seemed to work just fine. A common backup method used is buying a large stack of floppy disks or more recently CDs, copying your files into them, labeling all disks for organization and for easier retrieval when the need arises, and finally, storing away everything. You somehow manage to effectively make backup copies of your files but it took a lot of time and effort. Plus, with this method, there’s really no guarantee that a few years down the road, you’ll still have files to retrieve. This type of file storage devices are susceptible to damage caused even by the smallest amounts of water, some scratches, or exposure to magnets.

But technology has come a long way when it comes to storage space. Now, you can buy external hard drives which will plug in to almost any computer you can find and work immediately. And all of your data is organized in folders, just like on your home computer’s built-in drive. No more sorting through stacks of CDs and floppies. You can also get these drives in sizes that were unheard of until recently. Some drives can hold multiple terabytes of data, more than almost anyone could possibly need. For instance one terabyte drive could store over 200,000 photos at 5 megabytes each.

But not everyone wants to run out and buy a new, and often expensive, hard drive. While it lets you keep all of your files with you, which offers some comfort to most people, it can be a bit overwhelming for some people.

The good news is, there are companies which provide user-friendly ways to store your data online. Just one of these is Carbonite backup. Through their services, you can back-up your computer by using their storage devices. You do not have to worry about getting your files hacked because most of these companies house their servers in highly protected areas which make them nearly immune to corruption or damage. Your files are definitely kept safer with them than keeping them inside your office room.

You should begin by deciding where you will be backing up the computer to.Ideally you should use an external hard drive that has enough disk space to store copies of everything that is on your current hard drive.In order to find out how large your external device needs to be, on your windows PC click the right mouse button on the hard drive in ‘My Computer’ then select the ‘Properties’ item in the menu.  This will tell you the size of your current hard drive. 

Once you have purchased a suitably sized external hard disk, you should get some suitable backup software.  You have several options, however Norton Ghost is perfectly suited to the task.

Plug in the USB drive and by following the manufacturers instructions you should then load up the backup software.Once it has loaded, you should then create and run the backup.This may take some time, depending on the size of the hard drive being copied so you should be prepared to wait a while.Once all the data has been copied, check the files and folders on your USB drive to make sure that all the essential files have been copies and that you haven’t overlooked anything.

If this seems like a complicated process then do bear in mind there are lots of online data backup companies that you can make the process much easier for you.

The purpose for the data backup is so that in the event anything were ever to happen to your computer, for instance if it were to get a virus or something else were to happen that disrupted or even completely deleted any of your files or personal information, you would have the data backup and so you would be able to get all the data back.

There are a few different options that you can choose from when it comes to data backup, including online data backup for one because it is so convenient and because it is often free as well.

What Is Required

There are many different methods that you can choose to use to backup your computer data, but regardless there are a few things that you are going to require. All that is required to store your information on a drive or disk separate from your computer will depend on the method that you choose.

For instance if you operate on a home LAN system, you can transfer your files onto the other computers on the network so that if the computer you use primarily even went down you would have the information still stored on these other computers.

If you want to go with the online data backup option, there are a couple of online companies in particular that you are going to want to consider for their data backup services. This includes Storage Pipe for one, a company that is known for providing world-class corporate data protection solutions including online backup and recovery.

They allow for small to large businesses to decrease operations costs and complexity, and for quite affordable prices.

Another great company that you may want to consider here is Data Protection, which is a privately held company that offers effective data backup solutions. They are focused solely on backup and storage for business clients and they have designed an easily managed and quite affordable solution that is scalable.

They understand that the handling of data has evolved significantly in the past few years in response to security threats and legislative acts addressing privacy and financial reporting issues and they have made the proper steps to keep up with these advancements.

Working quietly in the background, Carbonite installs a small application on your computer, looking for new and changed files that need to be backed up. It looks and feels just like part of your computer, and is integrated with your desktop — there’s no new interface for you to learn.

If anything happens to your computer, restoring lost files is easy. To restore a specific file or folder, simply open the Carbonite Backup Drive from your desktop. Files and folders are organized in the backup drive exactly as they are on your computer. Locate the specific file or folder, right-click and select “restore.” The software will restore the file or folder to its original location on your hard drive. You will also have the option of restoring the file to a new location, by selecting “Restore to…” or recovering a previous version of the file by selecting “Restore previous versions…”

Go to carbonite.com and click the Restore tab to log in to your account and restore your files if you need to restore everything in your backup to a new or repaired computer. The Carbonite Restore Wizard will help you restore all of your files to your new computer with just a few clicks.

Once installation is complete, the Carbonite software looks for files to back up by scanning the hard disk. All file types except executables (such as .exe and .dll), system files, temporary files and video files are automatically backed up by Carbonite. By right-clicking on the file and selecting “Back this up” from the Carbonite menu, however, any of the excluded file types can be manually added to the backup. Upon setup, Carbonite offers a wide array of options for customizing your backup, but 95 percent of Carbonite users prefer to stick with the default settings.

1) Next, determine the approximate quantity and file sizes you will be backing up.

2) Figure out the quantity and file sizes of any documents or applications you may want to archive permanantly to a backup device or removable media.

3) Plan for that amount of information to grow in the future.

4) You should work out your budget for a backup storage device and removable media to use with it.

5) Consider if you plan to archive photographs or scanned files, need portability of the media or the drive itself, wish to record sound or music for playback on other equipment, or need ease of use.Weigh these factors along with your need to back up the files.

6) Work out the total cost per MB of media for each drive you are considering.zip drives themselves are cheap however the disks aren't.

7) You may want to consider buying a 100MB zip drive if you need limited storage capability (less than 1GB).  An external parallel port or USB Zip drive provides the most versatility and portability.Consider buying a 250MB Zip drive if your storage requirements are moderate (a few GB). 

8) Buy an internal zip drive if you will only use the drive for backup and you are able to install it by yourself (installation fees add up).

9) You may want to consider buying yourself a CD-RW drive if your storage needs are more moderate and you will regularly back up more than 500MB of data.

10) Buy a Jaz drive or even a tape backup drive if you will be backing up large amounts of data regularly.

11) Buy an external hard disk if you will need a lot of space, wont be keeping old backups and dont need portability.

12)  If you require additional security, data protection and the ability to recover your data quickly then online data backup should be a serious consideration.

Data is often the most important part of computer usage as it can take months or years to accumulate relevant information.As technology becomes more reliable, the risk of losing information has been significantly reduced however it would be needless to lose documents due to lengths that you could have taken to prevent such an occurence. 

There are several formats of media that will allow your data to be backed up up.  Commonly used devices are external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, USB drives and for more sensitive information there are companies and services which will provide you with secure online data backup.  Whenever you backup data to an external device, said device should be stored in a different location from the original computer in case a fire or local electrical surge should damage the data backup hardware.

Data backup is most useful when done constantly and within reason.For example – if you are working on a lengthy report, you should not wait a significant amount of time before saving your work.  Consider the effort that it would take to redo the work since the last save in the case of a crash and make a judgement call as to how often you save your work.

There’s a few tips and items you should familiarize yourself with before you select a backup method to use. Knowing what you want backed up, remembering to keep it simple and do your home work are just a few of the items you need to keep in mind when making your decision.

Know what Files and Data to Backup

Before you rush out to buy an expensive piece of software to backup your system you need to know what it is you want backed up.Some of the software programs for backup are designed to specifically create a whole system backup, however this is probably more then the average PC user really needs.

The majority of home PC users need their photos, videos, and Documents backed up but can skip all the system stuff.This can make things a little to high tech for someone who’s just an average joe or jane PC user.

Go for Simple not Feature Rich

More features in a Backup program or service doesn’t always mean it’s better.Trust me when I tell you to avoid buying a service or program that is very feature rich. Get the features you need but to many features slows down the backup process, this will in turn make it difficult for you to stick to a regular backup routine.

Rather, look for an easy to use program that can be setup and then allowed to run on a schedule. This is the simplest way for home users to keep data up to date.Two online backup services that meet these criteria are Carbonite Backup and Mozy Backup.

Research Before you Buy

Don’t just rush off to buy into any old service, take some time to read online backup reviews to ensure you’re getting a quality product and service that will serve it’s purpose.This is a good way to ensure that the service or software you’re about to spend money on is as good a program as it suggests it is.

Spending just a bit of time before you buy can save you hours of time and data if you ever have to restore files. Ensure that the program backs up files properly and also is easy to restore files.