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Backups

USB Flash Drives Great For Backups At A Low Cost

A few issues back I discussed what random access memory (RAM) was, and how important it was to have as much memory as your computer can hold. This month I’d like to talk about memories. Or more to the point the storage and retrieval of memories.

I’ve experienced countless numbers of hard drive failures in computers that belong to our home user clients and as a result of this failure they lose all of their precious photo memories.

Once I tell them that I cannot rescue these photos, a lot of times they get that deer in the headlights look, and it is so sad. I got to thinking about this as just this past holiday season, my wife and I purchased a digital camera. Never having owned one before, I have been taking pictures like crazy and downloading them to my home PC.

In years past, it wasn’t an issue to back up your photographs. You used to take your pictures into the store and have them developed. It didn’t matter which type it was, slides or photos: Once you got them back developed, you could put them in an album and anything short of a major disaster those images will live on for generations. Your “backup” was the negatives that came back with your pictures.

Hard drive failure can lead to a loss of so many memories that many feel this would be a major disaster. We’ve touched on various backup systems for business users, but home users should be just as vigilant in the protection of what they consider to be their important data, their photo memories.

As technology has changed over the years, storage technology has evolved just as quickly. We used to backup onto floppy disks. Then came the writable CD player. And just a few years back came the development of an affordable DVD writer that can store much more data then a CD.

But the latest technology is the USB thumb or flash drive. This tiny portable electronic drive has no moving parts and is small enough to fit on your key chain.

And as companies refine their technology; these drives have become more and more affordable.

The ease of use is one of it’s best features, a truly plug and play device that works instantly on any computer with a current operating system such as Windows XP or Windows Vista. You can move the drive with true ease from computer to computer to copy those memories and have them stored away for future generations.

I’ve seen USB flash drives with 4GB of storage sell for as low as $25. This type of capacity will allow you to store numerous photos and can serve as an electronic photo album. The other nice thing about a USB drive for backup is that you can use them for more than just pictures – any important data you have on your computer can be backed up or copied.

If you’d like more information about how to use a USB drive to backup your memories (and important documents), just give us a call at (734) 457-5000.

Please, Back Up Your Data!

All too often, we see clients who rarely, if ever, back up their critical data. And in all the years we’ve been repairing computers, we’ve never seen one break at a convenenient time. More often than not, your hard drive will fail at precisely the time you can least-afford to lose your data.

If all you use your computer for is occasional email or web browsing, a hard drive failure may not be too critical. But we’ll often go into a new client’s office and find their critical files aren’t being backed up, either locally on workstations, or on their server.

Even worse are those network installs we’ve encountered that don’t even include backup devices.

A recent issue of PC Magazine had an article on the nuts and bolts of data backup. It contained a lot of the same concepts that we’ve been preaching for eons and the highlights are worth repeating here.

  • Identify what you absolutely can’t afford to lose – photographs, financial information, address book, downloaded music, etc. – and ensure that they get backed up regularly.
  • For local computer and workstations, backup to compact disks if at all possible. They’re cheap, fast, safe and easy. If you have more data than will fit on a CD, go to DVD (which holds about 6 times more than a CD).  • If your files won’t fit on a DVD… think about a more professional backup system such as a REV drive from Iomega. If you have that much data, it is worth the investment in a professional backup solution to protect it.
  • Determine your optimal backup schedule by asking yourself how much data would be a hardship to reproduce if it were lost. Those who can’t afford to lose even one day’s work should back up every day. If recreating a week’s worth is no problem, then a weekly backup may do the trick. Either way, take the time to do the backup – recreating the data will take you much longer!
  • Store one copy of your data off-site. If your home or office burns down, backup disks that are sitting next to the computer won’t help you much.
  • Collect the installation CDs for all of your programs and store them together. Make copies of those disks that are critical to your business and keep them off-site.
  • Don’t be too quick to trash or overwrite older backups. If you encounter file troubles (data corruption or virus infection, for example), the most recent backup of that file may have the same problem.
  • Multiple solutions, such as daily back-ups on CD or DVD and weekly backups on a REV drive or tape system, give you more effective recovery and better protection.
  • Most consumer programs won’t copy files that are in use. Be sure to close all files before you run a backup. This is particularly important to note on server-based systems: You must invest in an open-file backup option for your backup system.
  • Check backups often to make sure they’re current (open the disk and verify the date of a recently used file). All too often, we hear horror stories from people who were convinced that they were backing up properly, only to find that nothing was actually being written to the disk or tape.

Backing up your important files can be painless. The same cannot be said of losing them. Give us a call and we’ll show how to make it quick and easy.

Sleep Easier With Automatic Off Site Backup Services From Tech Experts!

Off-site backup service from Tech Experts eliminates the risk of fire, flood, theft, hard drive failure, or even human error! Your precious data is automatically and securely sent across the Internet to Tech Experts’ backup server.

Your files remain on our server, for easy, instant retrieval. In fact, you can get any file as it existed in the past 30 days within five minutes.

Try that with a tape drive!

The best part is you don’t have to do anything. It happens automatically in the middle of the night.

No swapping tapes, no remembering to hook up the backup drive. Even on holidays!

And it’s secure enough for health care/HIPAA companies, law firms, and other sensitive data. Backup Service starts at only $59.95 per month!

Call us today for more information.

Sleep Easier With Automatic Off Site Backup Services From Tech Experts

Off-site backup service from Tech Experts eliminates the risk of fire, flood, theft, hard drive failure, or even human error! Your precious data is automatically and securely sent across the Internet to Tech Experts’ backup server.

Your files remain on our server, for easy, instant retrieval. In fact, you can get any file as it existed in the past 30 days within five minutes.

Try that with a tape drive!

The best part is you don’t have to do anything. It happens automatically in the middle of the night.

No swapping tapes, no remembering to hook up the backup drive. Even on holidays!

And it’s secure enough for health care/HIPAA companies, law firms, and other sensitive data. Backup Service starts at only $59.95 per month!

Call us today for more information.