Thursday, October 11, 2012

Do you know........ where your data is?



Do you have all your data backed up? Is it a current backup? Is it a complete backup? Haven't you lost data at some point in your life? I know you have......
At minimum you should have all the data on your computer backed up. This is to say, you should have a complete copy of all the data on your computer that you care about. There are a variety of ways to do this. You can choose to use an external hard drive hooked up via USB, firewire, or eSATA. You can also back up your data over a network. This can be saved over your local network or remotely on a server. Ideally, you should have an offsite copy of your data. This is to say that it is not on premises. This way, if the worst should happen, a fire or a flood, then your data will still be safe. Online backup has a ton of advantages. It is offsite and if you are using a reputable service, then they are keeping multiple copies of the data at multiple locations. The major drawback of online backup services are that the initial backup of your system can take a very long time. A few of the services offer an initial backup via an external hard drive. Then all subsequent backups are performed online. Mozy.com and a number of other online backup services offer a free 2GB service so that you can back up some data and get a feel for how it works.

Local Backup

Simple device to turn any external hard drive into an automatic backup system

Article on backing up automatically using SyncBack on a PC

Apple Time Capsule

Drobo

Internal Drives, Network Attached Storage, USB hard drives, firewire, eSata

Online backup

Good write up on how online back up works

Comprehensive listing on companies offering online storge

Crashplan - This is the service that I use. I have been very happy with it. It allowed me to recover my data after my laptop was stolen.

Mozy -offers 2GB of free online backup
ADrive

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