This Is Not A Crash Test, Dummy!

Contributed by Jay Schroyer

You’ve got a spare tire in your trunk, road flares, a jack, antifreeze, jumper cables, even a first aid kit. You’ve tried to think of every major mishap that could befall you while on the road and prepared by dutifully checking these tools before every long journey you embark on. It doesn’t take much effort and it’s a lot easier to check on these things periodically than getting stranded out in the middle of nowhere. It’s amazing how many people will do this for their cars, but not for their computers.

What would you do if you arrived to work one morning to find that a malicious virus had slipped past the firewall, through your anti-virus program, and systematically devoured all of your files, both personal and work related. Would you panic and be brought to tears thinking about the presentation you have to give in the afternoon or would you smirk at the inconvenience and access the external hard drive that you use as a back up for just such an occasion? Having the tools available to repair computer misfortunes is just half of the battle in preparing for a hard disk drive crash.

Prevention is, of course, the best way around anything. Your company should have a fairly powerful firewall for its network or individual computers and the most recent upgrade of an anti-virus program is your best line of defense against infection. A surge protector will aid in any hardware destruction due to electrical surges and passwords can assist in securing individual stations. But there’s always the unexpected and unpredictable: pressing the wrong button at the wrong time, spilled coffee, and unexplainable general errors can all combine to form a great mess if you haven’t prepared.

Since the unexpected is, well, unexpected, there really is no way to accurately gauge how often you should back up your computer files. One of the best questions to ask yourself is, how often do I access or update these files? For example, if you have a PowerPoint presentation saved on your hard drive that you presented over five years ago and you are simply saving it as an example and you haven’t accessed it or made any changes to it in five years, it probably wouldn’t break your heart if the file disappeared one day. However, your monthly sales chart that you update three times a day and present to your investors once a week is probably a file you want to keep near and dear. For some, once a month may be more than enough, twice a week not nearly enough. It comes down to how timely and pertinent your saved information is to your success.

Referring to the previous example will also help answer a second question: of all the files that are on your computer, which ones should you back up? Picking and choosing separate files to back up is both time-consuming and illogical. If the device you are using to back up your files will allow it, it’s not a bad idea to simply back up everything. But if your space is limited, back up the files that you can’t afford to lose or would not be able to reproduce.

Choosing a method of back up can depend on a lot of factors: how much info are you backing up, can you use existing hardware to get the job done, and how much money are you willing to spend on a reliable back up option.

The seemingly simple and inexpensive method would be backing up files to a removable disk. However, if you have 300 megabytes of information and only a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive with each disk holding 1.44 megabytes, it could conceivably take you all day just to back up the existing information never mind the stack of diskettes you would have to store and label. Jump drives are a good bet as they are available in sizes as small as sixteen megabytes and as large as two gigabytes. Most are no bigger than a disposable cigarette lighter, but some run well over one hundred dollars in price. If your computer is equipped with a CD or CD-RW burner, it may be a very simple and cost effective option. Most CDs will hold over 700 megabytes of information and are usually on sale for pennies a piece. The most costly method would be to purchase an external hard drive. They are extremely stable and reliable and will hold tons of information, but they aren’t exactly small enough to fit in your pocket.

If you aren’t ready to invest in a good back up option, here are some helpful, inexpensive, and lo-tech things you can do to protect your data:

• Most computer users have a pretty substantial e-mail contact list. Print this list out when you have a free minute. Should you lose all your data, at least you have a hard copy that you can input once your computer is back up and running safely.
• Make a list of your user ids and passwords that you can store in a safe and secure place. You don’t want to hand your passwords to criminals, but if you have them saved on your computer and you lose that data you might not be able to access certain files, web sites, or other important information sources.
• Keep all of your original software installation discs, manuals, id numbers, and even copies of free online software that you’ve downloaded in a safe place should you have to reinstall your software. Reinstalling lost software is a simple task to perform, but without the discs and registration codes, it could become quite a hassle. Should you need reinstallation assistance, free software help is always available from the software manufacturers.

It’s easy to see that taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule to back up your computers important files can save you a lot of headache and suffering down the road. The methods range anywhere from virtually free to a little more investment up front, but the benefits will always outweigh the cost of prevention.

About the Author:
Jay Schroyer has worked in the client and customer service end of business for over five years in retail, advertising, and printing. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English writing and communication.

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