Hey! Back Up! Your Data it is!

Hey Everyone,

I recently spent the majority of a couple of days helping a colleague restore her data after her computer was stolen. Well, we restored as much as possible. She was not good at making regular backups. As a result she lost a significant amount of data that she will never see again.

I wanted to take this opportunity to provide a friendly reminder to make backup copies of data that you do not want to lose; and data you hold near and dear to your hearts! I know many, and perhaps most, of you have your own businesses, so you could not only be sad from losing personal files, you could also devastate your business if you do not make regular backups. I'd hate to hear if some of you lost time, money and customers as a result of not having backup copies.

Some important files to backup that are often overlooked include:

Email
Tax returns
Customer files, including order histories as applicable
Photos
MP3's, including your music files (I'd cry if I lost my hundreds of iTunes songs)
Address files
Phone lists
Application files (e.g., Word, Excel, Viso, etc.)
Invoices
Stored cell phone numbers and messages
Etc...anything important to you

Be sure to create more than one backup. For example, do not keep making your backups onto the same filename on an external hardrive, on the same USB drive, DVD, etc. If your backup media is damaged, then your data on the backup may not be able to be retrieved.

Which brings me to the next point...store your important backups somewhere safe! For your personal backups, a fireproof safe in your home *may* be okay, but preferably, store your backups offsite in a secured location such as a bank deposit box.

And make your backups regularly... I recommend making it a weekly event. It is amazing how many important files you can lose over just a week's amount of time! And if you have something extremely important, make a backup of it right away.

If you use online services to backup your data, let us know which services you love! Let's promote what works!

Dedicated to Your Success,


Ja-Naé