Imagine what a nightmare it would be if your hard drive fails and you didn’t have a backup system in place. It is not a matter of “if” your hard drive will eventually crash, but “when” it will happen. And even with this being inevitable, most computer users still do not have an effective backup plan in place.
So, with this said, here are some tips when planning your backup strategy:
1. For the best protection, follow the 3-2-1 rule
- Keep ‘three’ copies of any important file you have, which includes the original and two backups. Keeping the backups in a safe place away from any potential environmental hazards is a great idea. You can use fire safes and safety deposit boxes for your very important files.
- Have your files on ‘two’ different media types. This could be a disk and an external drive that can be attached via USB port. It provides protection against one of the two being inadvertently destroyed.
- Keep ‘one’ copy stored offsite, or offline
2. Get organized
Making sure you have your collection of photographs well organized will not only save you the frustration in locating and tracking files, but it will make backing up much easier.
3. Backup to two different mediums
You need to decide what combinations you will use: external hard drives, a Raid system, cloud storage, or optical media.
4. Determine how much space you will need in order to backup
Ask yourself about the size of your collection now and how much storage space you may need in the future. A good idea to follow is to know that whatever size your collection is, double that as the starting point of what size of each of the backup devices should provide.
5. Choose the software to manage your backup process
There are many different types of tasks that backup software can perform and provide. Some of these programs can do almost all types of backup, and some will only do one or two. If you have any questions about the software to use, contact us and we can explain all the different types best for your needs.
6. Make backing up a routine
You should definitely get into the habit of making the backup process a normally scheduled task. How often you back up your files or at what frequency is based on how often your data changes.
7. Don’t just backup your files, but test your backup
To make sure that your backup is protecting you, periodically test the backup by trying to restore your files to an alternate location. By doing this, it will bring out any flaws or corrupt data before it is too late.
8. Remember the timing needed to do the backup
If you have a lot of data, backing up your computer may be a time consuming task. Remember to plan your backup for a specific time that will have your computer on, but a time that you won’t be using the files.
Or, you can avoid steps one through eight entirely and make one phone call to Davik, Inc. For just a dollar a day, we will not only keep you backed up, but also protect and maintain your system. Contact us for more details.
