Dividing your data into categorizes and then prioritizing them is an important step in designing your backup process.

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.

Categorizing the data is so important that I have dedicated this separate post for data categorization.

So we categorize the data set and prioritize them. The most important set is backed up frequently. Also you need to ensure that the most important data set is included in the remote data backup as well.

Categorizing the data:

In broad terms, the data on your Hard disk could be divided in to these groups:

Business data

The most significant data for your business. This includes documents, mails, web site, tax records, investment and other financial records, business records, customer lists, etc.

Personal Data

Personal photos, videos, mails, personal diaries.

System setup

The working system setup, licensed software, license keys.

Setting up your computer to keep the data in an organized way.

If the data in the categories above are scattered all around your hard disk, backup will become a nightmare. Keeping the data of the same priority together helps in better organizing and having a better backup process.

Have your Hard Disk partitioned to have one drive for each of the categories above and one spare partition for local backups and other data.

So dedicate a partition for Business data (lets say, D: ) Personal data (say, E: ) and System data (say, C: )

You can have one more partition to keep other data that does not require backups (G: )

System backup:

In system backup, you take the backup of the running, ‘good’ condition state of your PC. Having the system backup saves you from reformatting and re-installing the O.S in the event of a system crash.

The first thing that you need to do is to ensure that you install all the important software on the system drive (C: drive for example) itself. Then remove all the clutter from the system drive (clear temp files folder, browser cache, ). Do not put any insignificant file in the system drive. It is common bad practice to drag and drop all un necessary files on the desk top. keep your desktop folder clean and avoid all unnecessary files from the desktop folder.

Before taking the backup of the system drive, disable hibernation if you had enabled it (Control panel->Power options->Hibernate tab ). This removes a huge hiberfil.sys file from the HDD. You can re-enable it after taking the backup.

For system backups, you have to take the ‘image’ of the drive itself. Taking image means a track by track, sector by sector data is copied to the backup rather than individual files.
You have to use a software that can take the image of the partition. (Like Norton Ghost, or Boot-It NG).
Take the image to a local drive. Then copy the image to CDs or DVDs. Label the CDs/DVDs with date of backup and keep it safe.

This set of backups will save you in the following situations:

• Virus attack

Load the image back from the last system backup disks. Then run a good virus scanner to ensure that all traces of the virus are gone.

• The boot up fails

It is not very uncommon to be in a situation where the boot up just won’t complete. May be a system driver is misbehaving. Just reload your system drive with the last backup image.

• Some Spy ware got into your system

Suddenly you start seeing some annoying popups. Or there is a new toolbar in your browser window. Just go back to the last system backup.

• System slows down

Could be because of some spyware or some service started misbehaving. Reloading your system from the last backup could solve it in most situations.

Business Data Backup

D: drive (data partition) is the most important because it is where you keep all the business data. You should be strict in that you do *not* allow any other files insignificant to the business is kept in this data drive. On the other hand, all data significant to the business and that requires frequent backups should be put in the data drive only.

One of the challenges would be in getting all the important data to the data drive. Most of the applications keep their data in the system drive itself. There are two alternatives:

• Configure the applications to put their data in the data drive rather than the system drive

You will have to find out the configuration information from their manuals.

• Create some scripts to copy the data in regular intervals to the data drive

The business data drive should be backed up frequently. Also do have a plan to remotely backup the business data as well.

You can use incremental backup to reduce the backup size.

Personal Data Backup

Of course, personal data is important too! Who will not be alarmed to see that the photos of the first birthday of their kid has just disappeared after a hard-disk crash!

Put all your photos, videos, diaries and all personal data in the personal data drive. Get the data backed up on to CDs or DVDs and keep the disks safe. Take the backups in regular intervals.

Half way through!

Once the categorization is done and moved data accordingly, you are half way through the backup process. Now all that you need to is to install scripts to backup data locally and remotely

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

(The Operating system installation & the programs that you install )

• Business data
• Personal data

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.