Backups!!! Are you prepared?

I recently was thinking about my own backup strategy and realized I’m not really ready at all.  I use a variety of methods to keep some data backed up, but I’m not being consistent and I know it’s not as automated as it should be.  Then I was contacted by two customers who have data loss and the reality is, no matter how much you watch CSI, it’s not as easy as they say it is to recover lost data.  What to do then, luckily there are a lot of options.  The cheapest is to buy an external hard drive and use the backup software that comes with them and schedule it to run daily.  The next option is to signup for an online backup service.  There are a bunch out there, most notable is Dropbox, Mozy, Carbonite.  There are also a lot of online storage solutions too such as Apple’s iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive.  Online backups have the advantage that the data is offsite so in case of a house fire, that data is still available.

Where to begin?  Check out the various options and start by looking at how much data you have and how much that might cost to back it up.  The second thing to think about is the type of data you have.  You may have less than 2 GB of documents, great then choose a service that lets you have up to 2 GB for free like Dropbox or Mozy.  If you’ve purchased most of you music through iTunes look into iCloud as a solution.

The main thing is the solution is understandable to you so you know how to get your data back in the case of a hard drive failure.  The other main feature is automation, no matter how much we think we will run that backup on our own, we don’t.  Days go by and turn into weeks easily because it can take time and the next thing you know you do not have a good backup for years.  The last recommendation is organization.  Backups are great but now is the time to make sure your files are organized so you now where to looks for things that are important to you.

Good luck!