Steps to Prevent Critical Data Loss (Part I of II)
Step 1: Backup your data
If you’ve been told once, you’ve been told 100 times – back up your data. Here’s the hard truth – your hard drive is going to fail or it’s going to get wiped out by a virus or you are going to delete some extremely important information one unsuspecting afternoon. These things happen every day, every hour – somewhere. It’s 2008 and it’s easy to backup your data so make sure you are doing it.
Step 2: Check the backup logs
There is no way around it – consider this the “brushing your teeth” part of your day. It’s a pain sometimes but it has to be done consistently. You need to check a few things – make sure the backup actually ran, that it found your backup device and then ensure that the backup was not only complete but successful.
Step 3: Test your backups
So you’ve been backing up your data for the last 2 years to your CD burner and you figure you have it all under control, right? Have you ever actually verified that the backups are working? It’s crucial that you make sure the backups are copying your data and that it can be restored if needed. A good test would be to restore some piece of information every month or once a quarter – this will give you piece of mind in the event of a real disaster.
Step 4: Take your backups offsite
This is the most basic definition of disaster recovery. If your home or office is ever involved in an unfortunate disaster; burglary, fire/water damage or natural disaster, have a current copy of your data at an off-site location will put you in a better position to get back online.
