QuickTips: What you should backup...
18th July 2014
Nobody really likes backups - it's not an interesting topic for most, but it is vital to protecting your business. So what should you actually backup to protect yourself from loss of data?
In today's day and age everything we do tends to be on a tablet, laptop or desktop PC. We store huge amounts of data including photographs, letters, spreadsheets to name just a few.
Our Guidance to Home Users...
As a general rule you should back up your important data for a home user at least once a week. you should consider as a minimum backing up to an external device like a USB Hard drive or large Flash USB Drive - and NOT leaving it connected (why? because some viruses will destroy the backup too - see our Cryptolocker Blogs for an example), although it's worth considering a Remote Backup product for better, automated backups.
You should consider undertaking the following backups in case of that unfortunate disaster:
- If using Outlook or Windows Live Mail to retrieve your emails then you should seriously consider backing these up, as the chances are if your internal drive fails you could lose them all, especially if you're using a basic e-mail service (such as those provided by most broadband providers). The option for this is built into the program where you can Export your data file. You can also backup your mail server connection settings in the same way.
- You can also backup all your Favourites websites from your Web Browser - such as Internet Explorer and Chrome which can be copied into the folder imported back into the folder after a reinstallation of windows or to a new PC.
- If you play games on your PC you can back up your game save files and settings which are normally located in your my documents folder or the install directory of the program. There's nothing more annoying than losing your saved game when you've almost completed a game!
- Important folders to check & always backup are your My Documents folder, My Pictures, Music and My Videos and possibly even your Downloads folder.
- We don't recommend saving to your Desktop, but it is also advisable to check your Desktop for any files you have saved to it!
Regularly backing up can save you a huge amount of time and headache, if you are unsure or would like further advice on undertake regular backups as a Home User, speak to our Home User team - Blue Ribbon Computers.
Our Guidance to Business Users...
As a general rule you should back up your important data for any business user every day. If you're just working on standalone desktops and laptops, we recommend you ALWAYS use a Remote Backup tool - installed on each computer. This makes sure your backups are automated, taken off-site and encrypted for security. If you've got a server then you should definately backup using Remote Backup tools.
Please remember that most of the "Online Backup" tools that you can get are aimed at home users (especially if they're ultra cheap) and won't be adequate to protect a typical server with business applications at all!). That's why you should use tools such as our Remote Backup for Small Business Servers
You should backup the following as a minimum:
- Your e-mail - back it up, always. If you're using an in-house e-mail server, this needs to be backed up, but make sure you check if your server keeps your email or you need to backup your computer copies as well - especially if using older versions of Outlook or you have Archive Files enabled. If you're using some form of "webmail" only service, there are numerous software products that back it up - don't rely on someone else - even well known e-mail providers have lost some data from time to time.
- Your Staff/Users often save lots of favourites to web sites - and would be lost without them, and you can backup all your Favourites websites from your Web Browser - such as Internet Explorer and Chrome.
- If you use any e-mail server products, or database server products, you need to get them properly backed up - copying files often isn't adequate (and may not even work), so you need proper setup and backup to be in place
- If you have users that can and do (and will!) save files on the local computers (in my documents or on the desktop etc) rather than on a centralised server, make sure you either back these up OR change your systems to prevent it so data can be safe
- Don't forget that those users with laptops and spend a lot of time away from the office probably save data all the time to the laptop and by nature they're most vulnerable - so make sure you have a backup system that can handle that.
Need some help getting your backups in order?
No problem - if you're not yet a customer, just give our sales team a call on 01392 950 950 and we'll see how you can helped with your issues. If you're an existing customer, click here and find your support contact information.
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