Having a solid backup plan is important for every computer user. It is extremely important for small/home businesses too. Losing the data may even mean that the business does not exist any more!
So it is important that you have a solid backup plan and that it gets executed regularly.
This article takes you through the basic steps that ensure that you never will have a hair- pulling day!
Categorize the data to be backed up
There would be various sets of data on your hard drive. Backing up the entire hard drive regularly would not be very practical. When you consider remote backup as well, it becomes important to keep the data size to the minimum.
The data in broader terms could be categorized as below
- The system setup
- Business data
- Personal data
(The Operating system installation & the programs that you install )
Keep the data according to their priority
It becomes handy to keep the data of similar priority together. Not only this helps in keeping your data better organized, but it prevents you from missing any important piece of data from getting backed up and thus incrementing the backup size.
For example, dedicate a partition say, D: drive for all your business data keep all files: tax returns, contacts, website source and all such information in a proper directory structure under this partition. Keep all unnecessary files out of this partition. Do not install any programs, put any photos, video files or any other non-business files in the data drive; Of course, unless it is having some important business significance.
Configure your programs that deal with business transactions to put their files in the data drive. Or, if that is difficult, schedule a script to copy the data to the data drive frequently.
Design a backup process
The first thing in designing a backup process is to determine the priority of the data items that you classified. (Business data would be the most important, followed by personal info and system setup)
The most important data should be backed up very frequently. The business data should be included in the remote backups.
Complete backups and incremental backups
In order to reduce the backup size and the cost, you can have incremental backups.
A complete backup is taken first and then subsequent backups are incremental. Incremental backups mean that only the changed files are backed up.
Local and remote backups
You need to have both local and remote backups for securing against all mishaps. Local backups secure you from incidents like a hard drive break down, virus attack etc. Local backups allow you to have a quick recovery too. Remote backup secures you in situations like flood, fire, or robbery.
Automate everything
Having manual backup is likely to be neglected over time. Automating the backup process ensures that the backups happen even if you paid no attention to it. Backups could be automated using scripts (Perl, Python) or using ready made applications.
Test your backups frequently
In addition to having a solid backup process, it is important that you test your backups regularly. Unless you test your backups regularly, you may never come to know the ‘bugs’ in your backup process or the issues in the scripts.
Testing the backup is like a fire drill. You pretend as if your data is lost and try to recover the data from the backups. This practice not only helps ensuring that the backups are running smoothly, but it familiarizes you with the recovery process also. In addition, the recovery drill may help you in realizing some pitfalls that exist in your backup process and to fine tune the process.
A sample backup process :
Organizing the data
- All the important business data are kept in the D: drive.
- The mails are backed up from the folders of the mail clients to the D drive every 1 hour. This process is automated using a script
Daily Backups:
The entire D drive is backed up to an external Hard disk (connected through a USB interface) every day. Up to 7 copies of the backup are kept. The backups are zipped and encrypted. The Data in the D drive is incrementally backed up, zipped, encrypted and is then uploaded through FTP to a remote server.
This entire process is automated and runs in the mid night every day (while you are sleeping).
A complete backup of the D drive is taken and uploaded to the remote server every two weeks so recovering would require the last full backup and the subsequent incremental backups.
Backup of the System setup
The Operating system is installed in the C: drive. All the software programs are also installed in the C: drive. The image of the C drive is backed up on the internal hard drive and is copied to DVD discs. This process is done every 1 month.
Personal Data Backups:
Personal data is kept on the E drive. This includes photos taken on the digital camera, personal diary and so on. The personal data is also backed up daily to an external hard disk. In addition, the personal data is copied to a DVD every month and kept safely in a locker.
A backup recovery drill done every two months and the backups are verified.
Paying a bit of attention to a backup process like the one above can save you from the frustration and the business loss that may one day result from data loss.
