Preparing for a Data Disaster

Sooner or later, it's going to happen. If you use a computer long enough, the chances are you will experience a data loss. What you do before that happens may well make the difference between a long, expensive process to recover your data, or a relatively quick, painless, and inexpensive recovery experience.

The reasons for data loss fall under three broad headings: hardware-related problems, software-related problems, and user error.

• Hardware-related problems causing data loss are usually related to the hard drive, the motherboard, and/or the power supply.

• Software-related data loss can be caused by corrupted system files, missing or corrupted dll's, application incompatibilities, viruses, and just plain poorly written software.

• User error usually takes the form of accidental deletion of needed files and folders.

Regardless of the reason, your best insurance in the event of a computer crash is to have a good backup. The existence of a backup is often the thing that makes the difference between a disaster and an inconvenience.

Our Suggested Backup Plan for Small Businesses

Our recommended backup plan for small businesses is surprisingly affordable and rests on three complementary strategies:

1. Hard-Drive Cloning or Imaging for Rapid Recovery

On an automated schedule (usually daily), a bootable clone of your hard drive is created to a second hard drive. This allows the system to be rapidly brought back online after a hard drive failure or a fatal operating system crash. Only the data created or changed since the last backup will be lost.

2. RAID Mirroring

Another option to protect against hard drive failures is to use RAID mirroring. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) mirroring is a system by which two (or sometimes more) hard drives operate in such a way that they constantly mirror, or copy each other. If one drive fails, the computer keeps running on the remaining drive until a replacement can be installed.

The advantage of RAID is that there is little or no downtime in the event of a hard drive failure. The disadvantages are, firstly, that RAID offers little protection against viruses or other software-related problems; and secondly, that a failure of the RAID controller may simultaneously wipe out both drives. (This happened on one of our servers not too long ago. Thankfully, we also had a recent tape backup.)

3. Local Document Backups

On a regular basis, every user's document folder and other critical files are backed up onto ZIP disks, CD's, other removable media, or another computer on the local network. This allows critical data to be restored in the unlikely event that both the primary and backup drives on a computer should fail.

4. Off-Site Network Backup

On an automated basis (usually every night), a company's most critical documents are gathered, compressed, password-protected, and automatically uploaded to an Internet server in another geographic location. This enables a company to recover its critical documents and to rebuild itself even in the event that their building is destroyed by a fire, a flood or other natural disaster, or an act of war or terrorism.

We use a number of excellent companies for offsite backup, but one of our favorites is Mozy Remote Backup. Mozy offers unlimited online backup for only $4.95 a month -- an outstanding deal for home users and SOHO businesses. We also offer customized pland for businesses, servers, and any other type of situation in which backup is required.

Okay, my computer crashed and I don't have a backup. Now what?

Firstly and most importantly, stop using the computer. In Long Island or Westchester County, contact Geek On The Run for the best chance of recovering your valuable data.