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Backing up your computer
Hard drives fail every day... the more I know about hard drives and how they work, it's amazing that they last as long as they do! Read this. The best way to safeguard yourself is to backup your computer as often as necessary.
I have some computers that I backup once a week... we have one that we backup once every two weeks... some I backup every day. You need to back up your computer as often as neccessary.
How often is necessary? Perhaps after major events (like after transfering pictures to your computer) or as often as you are willing to re-enter lost data. For example, if a small company enters two invoices a day then maybe once a week is ok if the pain that they'd incure would just be re-entering a few invoices. Companies like Google, on the other hand, are backing up all the time. Most programs allow you to schedule backups as often as you wish.
I have some computers that I backup once a week... we have one that we backup once every two weeks... some I backup every day. You need to back up your computer as often as neccessary.
How often is necessary? Perhaps after major events (like after transfering pictures to your computer) or as often as you are willing to re-enter lost data. For example, if a small company enters two invoices a day then maybe once a week is ok if the pain that they'd incure would just be re-entering a few invoices. Companies like Google, on the other hand, are backing up all the time. Most programs allow you to schedule backups as often as you wish.
A data backup will back up just your data... nothing else. So, your Word documents would be backed up... but not the program Microsoft Word. A data backup would be like insuring your furniture... not your house.
With a data backup a hard drive crash is very painful... but not fatal. You'd need to replace your hard drive, reinstall the operating system and all other programs that you need. You restore your data and everything is back in order (hopefully).
An image backup is a full hard drive, bit for bit, backup. Everything is backed up... the operating system, programs and data. Although a hard drive crash is still yucky, an image recovery makes life much nicer... this is similar to insuring your entire home AND possesions.
With a data backup a hard drive crash is very painful... but not fatal. You'd need to replace your hard drive, reinstall the operating system and all other programs that you need. You restore your data and everything is back in order (hopefully).
An image backup is a full hard drive, bit for bit, backup. Everything is backed up... the operating system, programs and data. Although a hard drive crash is still yucky, an image recovery makes life much nicer... this is similar to insuring your entire home AND possesions.
There are two types of backups
We Like to use...
For data backups we like Carbonite. Carbonite backs up your data (only) continusely, offsite and securly.
For image backups we like Acronis. Acronis will backup up your drive bit for bit.
You can use external hard drives, like the ones shown below, to back up to.
250 GB Drive
500 GB Drive
1 TB Drive
2 TB Drive
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Questions or problems with any of these products? Let us know... we're here to help!