What is and would be the best way for backing up and archiving?

[BomberAF]

If you have a home office and you need to back up data, how what would be the best way of backing up the data? I understand that you should back up away from site so I don'twant that to be included I just want an opinion on this idea.

Would saving data on extra internal hard drives be better or do just as good a job as having say a separate PC built specifically with loads of storage for use as back up.

If you can give me information about whether it would be a good idea, pointless oir whatever it will be appreciated.

Regards

AF

 

[Mike Connor]

It is essential to make backups on EXTERNAL drives or other EXTERNAL media.

You could use dedicated backup arrays or similar if you wished.

There are various industrial guidelines for backing up data.

industrial data backup guidelines - Google Search

For valuable business data you should have some form of removable external media like ( at least!) two USB or eSATA drives which you can store off site after making a backup.

The most useful backup for many is an image file, but some also do "normal copy" or "Zip" backups as well.

If you want to play around with possibilities this software has both options included, and is very reliable, I have it on a number of machines as do many people I know and there has never been any problem with it, it is also relatively easy to use for a "non-technical" person;

This is the free "Home User" version;

Free backup and restore software for system backup and restore, partition or disk backup and restore, disk clone and disk image under Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7.

<http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/>

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[essenbe]

I agree with Mike Conner. I have learned the hard way. I back up to external hard drives. I know I am carried away about it, but refuse to get caught again. I have 4 external hard drives and use 3 backup programs. I alternate programs and externals daily. That way I have backups on all externals. The simplest is to buy an external enclosure and a hard drive to put in it. I have 2 of those and 2 portable externals. I realize I go to extremes, but I have learned the hard way.

 

[BomberAF]

So should I use externals as well as internals? I have internal drives that are not set up as a RAID array, but instead as individual drives that I back up to, should I still think about building a backup server or something similar?

 

[Mike Connor]

So should I use externals as well as internals? I have internal drives that are not set up as a RAID array, but instead as individual drives that I back up to, should I still think about building a backup server or something similar?

You ONLY need to use EXTERNALS for backup. It is pointless using internal drives, if anything happens to your machine you can not get to your backup, ( or at least not easily).

All you need for most normal home business purposes are two portable external drives. You have one stored somewhere with your most recent backup on it, and the other is attached to your machine. You swap the drives every time you make a backup. Backup daily. This is the MINIMUM requirement. You could use four drives instead in a backup rotation, for instance a

Grandfather-father-son backup

Grandfather-father-son backup refers to the most common rotation scheme for rotating backup media. Originally designed for tape backup, it works well for any hierarchical backup strategy. The basic method is to define three sets of backups, such as daily, weekly and monthly. The daily, or son, backups are rotated on a daily basis with one graduating to father status each week. The weekly or father backups are rotated on a weekly basis with one graduating to grandfather status each month. In addition, quarterly, biannual, and/or annual backups can also be separately retained. Often one or more of the graduated backups is removed from the site for safekeeping and disaster recovery purposes.

For more info on backup schemes see here;

Backup rotation scheme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What you use depends in the final analysis on how valuable your data is to you. Businesses have failed as a result of data loss.

The biggest problem with backup for most people is that they don't do it!

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[BomberAF]

You said that having internal hard drives as a back up is pointless as you cant get to the data easily but you can all you have to do is remove the internal HDD.

I must say that the idea about Grandfather - Father - Son backups is a very good idea and a lot better than what I normally do. I normally have 3 HDD's one for a windows backup to occur every week, and 2 other HDD's where Acronis makes daily backups, one an incremenatal back up of files and folders, and another weekly system backup. I do also use DVD's and online back up, as my data is study notes, and I tend not to keep paper copies as they are messy, take up far too much space, can get lost, get mixed up, difficult to search and they can also be viewed by other people.

Regards

AF

 

[Mike Connor]

PS. You should also have at least one "Baseline Backup". This is an image backup made immediately after installing the operating system on your machine, and any programs you use for your business, like bookkeeping, records or similar programs.

This means that in the event of various problems or a "crash", or even if your office burns down! You can quickly restore a machine to working order and get on with your business. Your system and data should be on separate internal drives in the machine anyway.

The major losses incurred when computers or discs and other things fail, or are infected by viruses etc, are invariably caused by the massive loss of time, revenue, and general operational capability until a working system is again in place. This can be very very expensive indeed, quite apart from the cost of any repairs, hardware replacements etc.

With a little forethought and planning you can minimise this risk, and if your business depends on a computer and the data on it, then it is foolish not to.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

You said that having internal hard drives as a back up is pointless as you cant get to the data easily but you can all you have to do is remove the internal HDD.


Regards

AF

How are you going to remove the internal HDD while your office is burning down?

Just one admittedly extreme example, but it does happen, and there are many more scenarios where internal discs are useless. Why take the risk if you don't have to?


There is a very old saying in the computer industry among hardened technicians, system managers, and others of similar ilk; "If you dont have at least five copies of the data on different media, and at least two full hardcopy printouts, then you are living dangerously!".

This of course is also extreme, but even medium sized companies can be paralysed by data loss, and those responsible for making sure that it does not happen tend to become somewhat paranoid about backups!!!

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[BomberAF]

You said that having internal hard drives as a back up is pointless as you cant get to the data easily but you can all you have to do is remove the internal HDD.


Regards

AF

How are you going to remove the internal HDD while your office is burning down?

Regards....Mike Connor

Well it's not an office as such it's my bedroom, but I do take your point. Can you recomend one of the external HDD bays that you are talking about that you can just add drives too. You would also have to be around to be able to remove the HDD, and thats is why I do have online backups.

Like I said my data is very important too me.

 

[BomberAF]

PS. You should also have at least one "Baseline Backup". This is an image backup made immediately after installing the operating system on your machine, and any programs you use for your business, like bookkeeping, records or similar programs.

This means that in the event of various problems or a "crash", or even if your office burns down! You can quickly restore a machine to working order and get on with your business. Your system and data should be on separate internal drives in the machine anyway.

The major losses incurred when computers or discs and other things fail, or are infected by viruses etc, are invariably caused by the massive loss of time, revenue, and general operational capability until a working system is again in place. This can be very very expensive indeed, quite apart from the cost of any repairs, hardware replacements etc.

With a little forethought and planning you can minimise this risk, and if your business depends on a computer and the data on it, then it is foolish not to.

Regards....Mike Connor

I have all my files away from my C drive on separate internal HDD's.

 

[Mike Connor]

Well it's not an office as such it's my bedroom, but I do take your point. Can you recomend one of the external HDD bays that you are talking about that you can just add drives too. You would also have to be around to be able to remove the HDD, and thats is why I do have online backups.

Like I said my data is very important too me.

Sorry, I don't recommend specific brands or things like that,as a matter of principle, and to be honest with you I don't even know what the site policy here is on such matters. I will have to ask.

There are plenty of reviews online of all sorts of things, you have to spend some time informing yourself.

I will recommend that you obtain separate portable external drives. Which system you choose is up to you, but I would use eSATA interfaces, with AHCI drivers,

Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

as these allow "hot-plugging" ( means you can simply and safely remove the drive cable or switch the unit off while the system is running without data loss or other problems ), and I would not bother with things like RAID arrays and such for small business use, they are far too chancy in my opionion. Not so much technically per se, but because people don't know how to use them properly, and they also tend to engender a false sense of security.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I think to an ordinary home user, the greatest threats are theft or disasters such as fire and flood that affect both originals and single backups at the primary location.

A burglar or common thief might well grab your computer or anything immediately connected to it, such as external drives.

He's much less likely to locate or have any interest in a thumb drive the size of your finger tucked away somewhere.

Having said that, if you don't have your backups in 2 distinct physical locations, you are certainly exposed to a theft, fire, or flood loss.

Another thing to ponder: having a good backup and then over-writing it with a bad original that you don't know is bad at the time. An original file may become corrupt or you may unknowingly make an unwanted change to it---and then back it up, thereby overwriting a good copy of the file. If this happens, you may never be aware of it until you need the backup--and then discover it isn't what you thought it would be.

DVDs are problematic for various reasons---cumbersome, shelf life, low capacity, readability, etc.

You can consider on line backups--that gives you another physical location, but many have aversions to online methods.

Images are dubious because imaging at the consumer level is far from foolproof. I do image my operating system partition---but I don't keep any personal data on that partition. If the image won't restore, I have to reinstall Windows--which I can live with.

I'd vote for folder by folder (non-imaging) periodic backup to multiple locations--such as rotating hard drives on site and off site. Flash drives are not as reliable or cost-effective but worthwhile to some extent simply because of their small size, ease of concealing, and relative high capacity.

How often depends on the rate of change of your data. If you add one new picture of grandma per week, maybe you don't change the backup very often.

For the record, I don't follow my own advice very well.