Enjoy Your Christmas - Backup Your Data Files!

Maintaining an up to date back-up file can save your business. Data is a vital business asset; however it is also a fragile one. A hard drive crash, a computer virus or a natural disaster could instantly result in the loss of all your customer lists and financial records. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t think about making a back-up copy of their business data until after such a disaster strikes. The risk is even greater during the Christmas period as your office may be unattended and if disaster strikes it will not be discovered until it’s too late.

If your equipment gets damaged or stolen your insurance will cover the loss of the equipment. However it is your responsibility to ensure that your business data is secure and can be easily recovered if disaster strikes. The easiest way to ensure continuity of business in case of disaster is to have up- to-date backup of your business information.

What to backup?

The first step involves deciding what data you need to protect. Word processing, spreadsheet or other types of programs generally do not have to be backed up, as these programs can be re-installed from their original disks. Even in a major disaster, it should be relatively easy to obtain replacement disks.

What you need to be concerned with is anything your business creates. This would include:

• Databases, including customer contact data and ordering records, as well as inventory information.
• Financial software data files; including spreadsheets.
• Documents, including important correspondence, memos, work products and anything related to your business plan.
• E-mails, especially messages that contain critical data like customer queries and contact information.
• Website files, unless your site is hosted by a third party elsewhere.
• Any other data that would create a significant hardship if it were lost.

System configuration files and other setting files such as internet bookmarks may also be on your list of files to save, however these are not as crucial as other files.

How to backup?

Now that you know what you need to save, you need to start making regular backups. Copies can be made by manually copying your important files, however if you have a lot of files to back up this can be very labour intensive and time consuming. A more efficient way to back-up is to use back-up software.

One choice is the back-up package that comes with your operating system. Both Windows XP and Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 include tools for backing up. This back-up tool that ships with Microsoft Windows XP Professional is already installed. (If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you will need to install it from the installation CD.)

SBS 2003 R2 offers a more secure infrastructure that helps protect your business from unauthorised users and data loss. It offers automatic data back-up and the ability to retrieve accidentally deleted files or restore previous versions.

Windows Small Business Server 2003 also comes with a Back-up Configuration Wizard that allows you to specify the folders you would like to copy, whether the back-up should be saved to a hard drive or a tape drive and how frequently the backups should be performed. You can also use the tool to launch a back-up manually.

When to backup?

All your critical information and files should be backed up on a regular basis. A daily backup schedule is the most typical back-up style but depending on how critical your data you may want to opt for a weekly backup. Christmas is a special time of the year though – you would want to create a good copy of your data just before going on holidays.

Where to backup?

Forget about floppy disks. If you have a small amount of data to backup, you can use a flash USB drive, CD, DVD, Jazz disk or a tape as your backup media. Presumably the best backup solution is to backup to an external USB hard drive. This method is quick, reliable and cost-effective.

Once your back-up is complete it is very important that you keep it offsite. There is no point in carefully backing up your data only to discover that your backup tapes/CDs/DVDs are stolen or damaged. Be safe, take your data with you and store it away from your place of business.

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