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Why You Should Backup Your Data Daily

(November 1, 2001)

On any given day, thousands of computer users reach for their backup to recover data that has been destroyed, corrupted, or deleted. The causes of data loss are numerous and include operator error, hardware failure, software malfunction, power spikes/outages, fires, and more. Data problems often occur very unexpectedly and at any moment. You should confirm that you have a backup process in place to guard your data against such catastrophes.

If you are among those who do not regularly backup up your data, ask yourself this question -- How much data can I afford to lose? The correct answer to this question should be "none". Ponder for a minute what would happen if your computer crashed at this very moment and it could not be repaired. What would you lose? How much time and effort would be required to recover? Would it even be possible?

We receive several calls every year from anxious customers who have experienced a failed hard drive, accidentally deleted the wrong folder, or their computer technician has reformatted their hard drive to upgrade their operating system assuming that it was properly backed up. When they realize their data is gone and that they have no backup, or at least no recent backup, they call us with a desperate hope that we can somehow help them recover their lost data. If there is no backup we simply cannot help!

Customers who have installed our software on a standalone workstation are at greatest risk. This is because it is very typical for information technology departments to backup network servers only and not individual workstations. If you have installed one of our products on a standalone workstation you should speak with your information technology department to see about moving it to a networked server, or at a minimum help you devise a plan for backing up your workstation on a daily or weekly basis.

How do I know what files to backup?

Nearly every software product has related files containing data that you will want to protect. The only sure way to protect data for all installed products is to make a complete backup of entire disk drives. However, this may be impractical as you may not have a device with enough capacity to accomplish this.

When this is the case you will need to selectively backup important folders and files. With Skills Manager you can archive the SMGR folder with all sub-folders and files and you will effectively preserve all the software and data files associated with the product. You can reduce the size of your backup somewhat by archiving just the DATA folder with all sub-folders and files. By backing up the DATA folder you will capture all important data files associated with Skills Manager.

NOTE: Skills Manager is installed by default into a folder named SMGR. Setup however does permit the operator to override this location, therefore it is possible that Skills Manager is located somewhere other than the SMGR folder at your location. If you cannot locate the SMGR folder, check with the person who installed the software and ask them to identify the location they used.

Backup Strategies

There are many options available for recording backups. They range from the extremely simple to quite complex. The method you select will depend on personnel expertise, available equipment, volume of data, and relative importance of the data involved.

Simple

The simplest backup can be performed quite easily by making copies of important files and folders using Windows Explorer, a utility provided with the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is best to copy your files to an external disk. Diskettes are not a very good backup medium as they can only hold 1.44MB each and this will likely be inadequate for your needs.

A disk on a network server is an excellent location to store your files if your computer is networked, but it is best to get approval from computer services first. Most network servers are backed up on a daily basis by computer services and these backups are often kept for several days before the backup medium is recycled for subsequent backups.

If your computer is not networked you can acquire a very inexpensive backup device such as a 100MB Zip Drive, 250MB Jazz Drive, or even a drive capable of writing to CD-ROM or DVD. These devices can be purchased for as little as $100. Be sure to purchase several disks for these devices so that you can make a least a weeks worth of backups before having to recycle the medium.

If such a device is not available and there is no room in the budget for one, then consider copying your folders to another location on the same disk in your computer. This choice is very risky and it should be used only as a last resort. If something happens to your computer or your disk drive it will be difficult to recover your data. However, it is better than no backup at all.

IMPORTANT: If you are unsure of how to go about making a backup, please seek the advice of someone who does. Talk with your computer services department or give us a call. Do not take chances with your data!

Advanced

Another choice you have is to purchase a high-capacity tape drive for your personal computer. A tape drive can be handy when you have 100's of megabytes or even several gigabytes of data that you need to backup and computer services will not allow you make copies of this size on the network server. Making backups on tape will also require backup software in addition to the tape drive itself. Many tape drives come bundled with adequate software. This software is usually easy to learn and use but some reading and practice is recommended. The important thing with backup software is that you know how to restore folder/files from the backup in emergencies. Again, purchase a number of tapes so that you can make a least 5 days worth of backups before having to recycle the tapes.

You might also consider storing periodically (weekly/monthly) one copy of your backup at another physical location as a safeguard from major catastrophes such as fire, flood, storms, etc.

IMPORTANT: Whatever backup method you choose, don't assume that once you get it set up that all is working correctly. Test it thoroughly by performing a backup and then verify that the selected folders and files are actually on the backup medium. Get familiar with restoring files so that you can perform this operation successfully when required.

by Steve Wesner

Crown Pointe Technologies, Inc.