A Note About Backups - you need to get to it TODAY
Every single document that talks about any changes to anything mentions a backup. Most applications will ask you to backup something - either previous data, registry, etc. Most web software will ask you to create a backup of your files and database before installing or trying something new. How many times have you reformatted and installed OS on your machine in the last 2 years? More than 2? Then you need to read on!
We hear it all the time but do you really do all that? I don’t :). I am installing something almost every day. There is no time to keep backing up all the time. And most times I get lucky so I guess I don’t feel that fearful about the risk of losing things. But yet, I know that’s only a matter of time that I face my first major disaster and lose imporatnt personal or business information. In today’s regulated environments, losing customer data can actually even make you liable to lawsuits.So, I guess the point I am trying to make is that we need to backup. OK, roger that.
But how? Windows and Linux OS come with some utilities for backup, but most people don’t use it. If you’ve tried in the past, there are serious limitations. The biggest one - you have to do it manually! At least if you aren’t a geek that can write batch or shell scripts, that’s the only option to schedule the backup utils that the OS provides. Five years ago, there really weren’t that many good backup programs out there. Norton Ghost (Symantec Ghost then) was one of the few and the process of making a backup and restore work was a nightmare. Bootable floppies, scary-looking interfaces, command line arguments blah blah..
Things have changed. Welcome to programs like Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost 14 and Casper. These programs can make an “image” or a full backup of your hard disk for you. And they are super easy to work with. I am a fan of Acronis. Just not their support teams. But the software is brilliant. Works like a charm. You set up once and forget. It backs up to an external hard drive, DVD’s or to your online storage space.
Another option for online storage these days is the Amazon S3 backups. I will write another post in the future about that.
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