New Years Resolution - backup your data

Submitted by Jeffrey on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 19:50
in
 

Basic backup strategy

Pick your backup media

In the old days (a few years ago) the cheapest form of backup was to DVD or CD. Prior to that, you might use a tape backup system. But as CD and DVD writing drives became more ubiquitous in most PCs and laptops, CD and DVD media became the cheaper and easiest way to backup.  This is still a very good option. But keep in mind that CDs and DVDs do have a shelf life of 1 to 10 years, depending on the quality. So they are not permanent. However, they do allow you flexibility to perform ad-hoc backups and also to allow you to take your backup media “off-site” on a more frequent basis. It it hard to create automated backups with media of this size, unless your data files are relatively small and you are using 4 or 8 GB DVDs.
 
The next option is to choose a large external hard drive, like a 500GB (gigabyte) or 1TB (terabyte) USB hard drive, depending on your needs. These are easy to connect to computer and most backup software supports them. The great thing about using a hard drive is that you can automate your backups, and they will backup your entire system. Typically, they will be configured to perform incremental backups, backing up only those files that are added or changed, once your full backup is complete. Another advantage of using hard drive for your backup media is that restoring a file is easy, since you won’t have to locate the CD or DVD that contains the file and version you want, unless you have switched out your backup hard drives (see below). The main disadvantage of using a hard drive as your backup media is the cost. Fortunately, every few months hard drives get a little cheaper. As of this writing, 1TB USB hard drives Buy.com affiliate link are about $100-$145, depending on the brand you choose. If you have a Mac, you may have the option to use FireWire hard drives. They are faster, but more expensive. 
 

321 backup

I didn’t create this philosophy, but I’ve heard it several times and I believe in it. Basically, it goes like this. For any data you feel is important, you should have 3 copies of it, on 2 different kinds of media and one off site. 
 
One copy should be your working copy. The second is a local backup, probably on your near-line storage like a backup hard drive or DVD. The third should be off site, just in case you’re a victim of theft or fire.
 

The offsite backup

So let’s discuss the offsite backup copy. I’ve actually employed two methods for this. The first is my backup hard drive from last year (or actually once it filled up I deactivated it and replaced it with a new and larger hard drive). This drive, and its power supply, is sitting in a safety deposit box.  So, I’m covered for my older data. However, my current active data and local backup hard drive are still at risk. So I’ve recently incorporated an automatic, secure, cloud-based backup. It runs whenever the computer is not busy, encrypting the data and sending it via the Internet to the provider. By doing this, I have an offsite backup of my most recent changes and additions. It only backs up new additions and changes, and performs no versioning of the files. My local backup will do that. The service I chose is Mozy.com Mozy.com affiliate link. I chose them over Carbonite.com because they would backup data from external drives.
 

Should you back up your entire system?

This depends on your backup system’s restore process. Some systems rely on a functional system to restore to. So, in the event of a hard drive crash, you would have to restore your operating system and then your backup software and then restore your backup. Other systems will create a “system recovery disk” for you, that you would use to boot from and restore your operating system and backup software, then your data. In the case of Mac OS, it gives you an option to restore from a Time Machine backup just after the OS install finishes.  
 

Test the restore process

Once you have your backup(s) in place and automated, how do you know that you can trust it? Verify your backup by restoring a file from it. I usually take a large file, like a photo or even a video, and make a copy of it using the operating system. Give it an obvious name like “backup-test-file” or something similar. Once you know that your backup systems have backed up the file, delete it.  Then, use the backup system to restore the file. Once it has been restored, check the file to ensure it is as it should be.  Restore this file on an occasional basis to periodically check your backups.
 

One more option

Another, more expensive backup approach is called RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk. The basic principal here is to have your data exist on multiple drives and, if one fails, the system uses the data from the other drives to determine the missing data. Some systems will support this without additional hardware, but the simplest configurations require specialized hardware and software. However, once configured you would theoretically never loose a file. You would still want to follow the 321 backup philosophy. Unless you have a really expensive and redundant RAID system, you could still loose data to corruption caused by the RAID controller. So having the second media and offsite backup is still important, especially the offsite backup.