Importance of backups

[Alastair]

This morning my computer refused to boot up due to a boot sector not being found.

I spent ages going through my support contacts and they all wanted me to just re-install my operating system. I eventually got a support person from Dell who worked in the Philippines as it happens.

Anyway she walked me through options from trying a repair through to trying to restore from a previous image backup before having to go to the ultimate route of re-installing the operating system.

Thankfully I have a weekly automatic process to take a system image backup and I was able to restore the system from that. All I lost was a few days data and some emails and even the data I was working on that was lost I'd already moved to our web site for safe keeping. So all I actually lost was a couple of image scans and two content type emails which were work in progress and I can easily get copies of those.

So... thought I'd just highlight how important it is to take a backup of your computer. I note one sales company was offering an external 1,5Tb drive for only $69.95 the other day. At that price it's well worth getting that for your system backups.

Alastair

[Alastair]

Re: Importance of backups

As it happens I have all my critical data on my web site... I admit if I totally lost my backup it would be a pain to re-install everything but there again I'd likely take that opportunity to upgrade to the 64bit version of the operating system.

Alastair

[jamesguides]

Re: Importance of backups

All computers and their components are subject to failure. In fact, sooner or later every business will face some type of computer failure. Greatest threat to enterprises in this process will be some type of failure data loss or data corruption.

[ownerbuilder2012]

Re: Importance of backups

I definitely agree, backups are very important. but sometimes we're just so lazy that we take it for granted. This is still something that i hope to accomplish. Thanks for the reminder!

[sandyc]

Re: Importance of backups

Something that most people forget is that part of a backup procedure is to ensure that the backups that have been taken can still be accessed and restored.
Not much point in creating a backup if it cannot be used...


Sandy

[Diane]

Re: Importance of backups

Hey,
I pay a very small fee per month to an outside company to automatically back-up my computer and everything on it every 4 hours. I feel so much better knowing that I am safe. It is well worth the money as forgetful as I am.