5 steps to Data Backup and Disaster recovery

Data backup and Disaster Recovery

Picture the scene, you turn your computer on and none of your files are there. You try from another computer and still the network drive where all your customer details, accounts, supplier information and e-mails are stored has disappeared.

During the night your server had a fatal error, the hard disk crashed and now all your company data has been lost. You call out your trusty IT professional who spends hours trying to recover the files, but to no avail. This is a scary situation for any company to be in, the invoices you have outstanding with your customer base, contact details for the latest marketing campaign, e-mails and a thousand and one other files that you can’t even remember yet are the core of your business. Your stomach churns and you know it should and could have been prevented.

Over the coming weeks and months you start to pick up the pieces, you call it a ‘Fresh start’ and keep positive, with every incoming contact from your customers you ask them to confirm address, banking and all other kinds of details, it’s a waste of your time and theirs.

The old saying ‘It’s cheaper to keep a customer than get a new one’ resonates loudly as you keep a close eye on workloads, turnover and profit. You are fully aware that it’s taken a very long time and allot of hard work to make a profitable business and it feels as if you’re starting from fresh.

If the prospect of this is making you shudder, don’t panic, there are some simple steps you can take straight away to minimise the chances of this happening to you, whether it be your personal computer or the office server.

1. What. Decide what needs to be backed up, look at what files, folders and systems you use on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. This first task will give you the quantity of the data to be backed up.

2. How. Now armed with the quantity you can evaluate the different options available to you. CD, DVD, USB data stick, external hard drives, tape drives or even an online facility. Many options exist and of course have a cost associated. Not only in media or facility but with your time, running, checking and storing the data.

3. When. So we know what needs to be backed up and how we are going to do it the next step is actually putting the schedule in place, daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly. Your data is specific to you and only you will be able to determine the effects it will have on you if it disappears. My recommendation would be daily, but weekly will suffice for most situations and even monthly is better than not at all.

4. Where. The worst possible place for you to store any data backed up is next to your computer or server, an office fire, flood or burglary will not only render your current system useless but destroy the chances of being able to recover it. Best practice recommendation is for all data backups to be stored at an alternative location in a fire proof safe.

5. Recovery. You can have the best intentions in place when it comes to data backup but they are of no use if, when crunch time comes you can’t use the data you have backed up, add testing the retrieval to your schedule. Failing to do this final step will render all of your efforts a complete waste of time and money.

Your Tech Mate, based in Cardiff offer a wide range of IT and Computer Repair services to the home user and small business, from fixing broken laptops, PC’s, and servers to implementing disaster recovery plans, failover systems and all using industry best practice procedures. Contact us now to arrange a free visit and overhaul of you IT infrastructure. If you’re reading this and you have had a hard disk fail, we also offer a data recovery service. Get in touch and we will see what can be done.