Backup ... or Die
I have been to computer hell ... and it stinks.
By Cinda Baxter -- Gifts and Dec, 5/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
As someone whose business relies on a computer — customer records, contact info, calendars, invoices, and inventory (or in my case: keynote presentations, scripts and graphics) — backups are a vital part of daily life. Every hour, on the hour, a program quietly runs in the background, duplicating all my work onto an external hard drive. That way, an extra copy exists, should something horrid happen to my laptop.
Which it did. In mid-March, standing in an Apple store half way across the country from my office, I heard the dreaded phrase “extensive fatal disk errors” as the explanation for why my laptop would no longer start up. What looked like a little software hiccup to me was actually the tip of a very big, very sharp-edged iceberg.
Was I disappointed? Yes, but not crushed. All I'd lost were the four days' worth of work since leaving the office, right?
Wrong. Unbeknownst to me, the backup stopped retaining information eight weeks earlier. The little icon kept spinning as if all was well, but nothing was actually duplicating. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Two months' worth of my business was gone.
Which leads me to ask: If your store computer suddenly were to melt down, just how much of your business life would go down in flames with it? Could you survive the fall, or would your store come to a screeching, expensive halt? And is it worth waiting until that happens to find out? I think not.
Fatal disk...huh?
A computer is made of hundreds of delicate moving parts. Like a car, with daily use, a part can wear out or simply “go bad.” The hard drive, also called a disk, is the brain inside the computer (unlike the processor, which is more like the heart that makes its blood flow). If the brain goes bad, everything stored on it is at risk.
A “fatal disk error” is different from viruses, malware or spyware. Security software programs won't protect you. Your choice of computer doesn't guarantee safety. This is a piece of equipment that's on every computer, can fail at any given time, and will inevitably do so at the worst possible moment.
Picture your hard drive as a DVD (or an LP, if you're of a certain age), then imagine someone using an eyedropper to drip one drop of acid on it. The disk is rendered unplayable, but there's still a chance someone can copy the remaining untouched information to a new disk, saving what was left behind.
Next, imagine that instead of an eyedropper, the acid was applied with a spritzer. Most of what's on the disk is toast, leaving little to be salvaged, if anything.
Both scenarios are frightfully common and completely unpredictable. There is nothing you can proactively do to prevent a disk error or contain its reach. If you're lucky enough to be in the first camp with limited damage, it could cost you $1,000–$5,000 to have the untouched information transferred to a new disk by data retrieval specialists. If you're in the second camp (with me), you're really up a creek without a paddle. Or a boat. Or your data.
Risk lives right under your nose
Fatal disk errors aren't the only risks out there. What if the laptop you use for work is knocked off the desk or dropped on the floor? Or the store is robbed and the computer stolen? What if there's a fire or flood (lots of East Coast retailers can tell you how that feels)? There are myriad ways you can lose your critical business information in mere seconds, without warning.
Short of loss, there are everyday concerns — a deleted folder you meant to keep ... the new employee who accidentally overwrote yesterday's bookkeeping numbers ... that ever present “Aw jeez, I shouldn't have edited that” hiccup. It happens to all of us.
So what's the solution? How do you dodge disaster? Backups. Plural.
Build a bigger boat
When it comes to backups, there are two flavors: on-site and off-site. On-site means there's an external hard drive or storage drive (disk) in the same physical location as the computer. Off-site means you're sending data over the Internet to a location somewhere else. Both offer automated and manual options.
To my horror, most small businesses don't back up at all, either off-site or on.
So which version is best? Neither. Actually, both. The hard lesson I learned is that a single backup no longer cuts it. If the backup goes bad, your data goes with it. If fire, water damage, or theft takes your main computer out of commission, odds are an on-site backup sitting ten feet away will fall prey to the same demise. Should something equally horrible happen in your off-site location, same problem, data gone.
In today's wired world, you need a bigger boat with multiple hulls. If one hull fails, the next keeps you from sinking, buying you time to get back to solid ground, safe and sound.
But Cinda, I'm not a techie
No sweat — lucky for you, I'm a geek. A nerd. Someone who actually understands this stuff, and can explain it in a way even my techno-phobic mother understands. Check out my upcoming July column for a simple “How To” plan that will protect your business from potential computer-driven disaster. I'll walk you through the options, with suggestions to make the process of building your new boat an easy one.
Better yet, I promise to write it in plain English (was it me, or did I just hear a sigh of relief ...?). Together, we'll get you out of that tiny inner tube and onto a fully loaded Backup Battleship.
We would love your feedback!
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