We’ve written before about the importance of a good backup strategy to preserve your data. Data loss can be one of the most painful experiences if you don’t have a good backup. Lost that important document that you spent hours writing that’s due in the morning and now you have to re-create it from scratch? How about your entire business stored in a database that is now lost due to a system crash? Either of these situations could mean potential disaster without a backup.
There are all kinds of different backup solutions out there, such as backing up to some type of removable media: CD’s/DVD’s/USB flash drives/external hard drives/tapes. Removable media is great, but most of the time, these types of backups aren’t taken off site, which is equally important as your building could burn down and now your only backup is lost. Cloud solutions (like Carbonite, CrashPlan, Dropbox, SugarSync) offer a great offsite solution, so the burning building scenario essentially is solved. However, by relying on a cloud solution as your only backup, you now may have to wait for a period of time to download your data from the cloud backup.
In my opinion, a good backup solution combines ease of access with offsite capabilities. In addition, PC configuration can be important based on the type of crash. There are some steps you can take to optimize your PC configuration so that you can maximize your ease of access to your data. This can involve some reconfiguration, depending on how far you want to go with this. You can also get uber-paranoid about having a backup and keep multiple backups. To keep multiple backups usually requires either multiple backup devices or multiple utilities. Any more than two different backups (one onsite and one offsite) and you’re leaning toward overkill.
OS/Program and Data Separation
PC’s are typically configured so that you have ONE hard drive inside the computer that contains your operating system load (Windows), your installed programs, and any data that you’ve created. However, say the operating system crashes and/or becomes corrupted and you are forced to reload the OS; now the data typically has to be rescued. This task usually involves pulling the hard drive from the computer (or having someone you know who is tech savvy do it for you), hooking it up to a device that will allow it to function as an external disk, and recovering your data (by copying the data from the existing drive to another disk, then copying it back once the OS has been restored). This obviously has to be done BEFORE you can proceed with the reformat, which will delay the recovery of your PC. It’s bad enough that you have to reload the OS, but now you have to rescue that data beforehand.
One step you can take here is to separate your data from the operating system and programs you have stored on it. The idea is that you would either have a secondary disk or partition (secondary disk is ultimately better, in case your hard drive crashes and the data is unrecoverable) that is strictly for storing your data. Servers are typically configured in this fashion. In fact, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials forces the issue by creating a 60GB OS partition and using the remaining drive space for a data partition. For the sake of an example, let’s say we hook up an external hard drive to the computer, never to be removed unless we are physically moving the machine (alternatively, if you have a desktop unit, instead of a laptop, you can put a secondary disk inside the machine). Windows can then be configured to point certain default storage folders (such as My Documents) to the external device. In Windows, if you right click on My Documents and select Properties, select the Location tab. If you click on the Move button, you can then browse to a location on your secondary drive or partition which will then house your My Documents folder. From that point forward, any document you save into My Documents will be stored on the secondary drive (which is why you cannot disconnect the external hard drive, because now Windows is expecting the My Documents folder to be on the secondary drive). In Windows 7, you can also do this for the Downloads, Music, and Pictures folders (the default location of these folders are typically located in the user profile, which is based on the username you use to log into your computer. If your username is ‘user’, and you’re running Windows XP, your user profile is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\user. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the user profile would be stored in C:\Users\user).
We strongly suggest that if you take this approach, you should absolutely go down the route of a secondary disk vs. the secondary partition. A secondary disk will give you added protection from hard drive failure (unless both drives fail, which is unlikely, except in the event of a serious power surge). However, a secondary partition works just as well, with the above exception. If you have a laptop, your options for a secondary disk can usually only include an external hard drive. However, you should never disconnect this drive if you’ve changed the storage location of your My Documents (or the other listed folders) folder, since Windows is now always expecting My Documents to be on the external drive.
Backup to Removable Media
If you have a laptop and are using an external drive as your data storage drive, you’ve somewhat accomplished this already. However, all we’ve done in the above suggestion is moved the data storage requirement from one piece of hardware to another. We don’t actually have a “backup”. The whole idea of a backup is to have a second copy. Think about a backup as a backup plan. What do I do if this plan fails? This is where you need to generate a second copy of your data that is never used unless the primary copy of your data is compromised. The most inexpensive way (and the least reliable) is to keep your data on some type of removable media. Never mind the offsite requirement for now. We simply want to get a second copy of the data. To do this, you have several options. You could copy the data from your data storage location to a CD/DVD/USB flash drive. You could also copy it to another external hard drive that you would then remove from your PC. This is typically a process that has to be done manually. If you don’t change your data very often, this may be a perfectly acceptable solution. Chances are, in today’s world, your data is changing all the time. Also, you don’t want the burden of having to remember to copy your data over.
We need to decide what type of removable media to back up to. Personally, I like the idea of an external hard drive, because hard drives are fairly inexpensive and give you a lot of data storage for the price. However, if you have less than 32GB of data to back up, I would say that a USB flash drive is a decent option. CD’s and DVD’s (unless you are using re-writable discs) can only be used once and can get expensive in a hurry if you’re keeping a unique copy every day (which is pretty unnecessary unless your data changes that often). Flash drives, however, after so many times being written to, can stop functioning. This is where an external hard drive can be a good option, because they can withstand the test of time. The only major issue you may run into is whether you’ve outgrown the disk.
If you decide to go down the route of an external hard drive for your backups, you want to get something with enough capacity that will support your backups. How much data are you backing up or do you intend to back up? A good indication of how big your external hard drive should be is to look at the size of your data storage location (Open Computer/My Computer, right click on your data storage drive and click Properties. The total capacity and what is currently being used are both reported there). If your data storage location is 160 GB, then you should have at minimum of 160GB of external storage for backups. Most backup software will compress your backups, so you have a little wiggle room. If you do a manual copy of your data (essentially what I would consider a 1 to 1 backup), then you will need as much data capacity on your backup device as your data storage location. Give yourself some room to grow as well. If you have a 160GB data storage drive now and it’s nearly full, you may decide to get something a little larger, since you’re probably planning on upgrading your data storage in the near future anyway.
Backup to the Cloud
The Cloud has become a fairly common buzzword over the last couple of years. What this means to us, as far as backups are concerned, is finding a service that will house a backup of our data for us. The way these services work is that once you’ve signed up for a subscription, you then download a piece of software onto your computer. Upon completion of the installation, you would then go out and select the data you wish to back up. At minimum, you should back up your entire data storage location. If you have not separated out your data from your OS/Programs, I would suggest only backing up the data you need to back up, as a cloud based back up service will not typically be able to restore the operating system by simply backing up the files. The most common services available come from Carbonite, although I like CrashPlan as well. Both range at around $50/year for unlimited amount of backup for personal use.
Backup of the Operating System
So far, we’ve focused primarily on backing up the data in your data storage location. However, the operating system, along with its installed programs and configuration, are equally as important. If your OS crashes and has to be reloaded, all programs have to be reinstalled and any configuration you had in place (custom backgrounds, storage locations, etc.) will all have to be redone. Depending on the amount of configuration you have done to your system, this can take WEEKS to recover. As such, Microsoft has built into its backup utility in Windows 7 to take a backup of the operating system through the ability to create a system image. If something were to then happen where the OS is not functional, you could then restore to the last good system image backup and be back in business with your entire configuration in place. As mentioned above, this type of backup must also be managed to ensure a good backup has taken place.
What Do I Back Up?
This is an easy answer: anything you wish to keep. To expand on that, in the above example, we mention separating the data from the OS. In many cases, the data is the most important. However, I would consider on a highly customized OS, where you’ve spent a lot of time over a period of months customizing your computer to do things a certain way, that the OS and all of its programs should be backed up as well.
Backup Software
There are a variety of backup utilities available. Windows has always had a built in backup program as part of the operating system (at least going as far back as Windows 2000). In Windows 7, you have a lot more options to back up your data. Microsoft has greatly improved their backup software to make it easier for you to back up your data. The really good part about this is that you can schedule this to happen automatically at a certain time every day. The only responsibilities you have is to determine what data to back up, where the backup is to be stored, and whether or not the backup actually occurred. The last responsibility is the most important, in my opinion. When you start to automate the process of backups, you MUST check to make sure the backups are completing, in order to know whether or not you have a good backup or not. If the backup didn’t complete, then you don’t have a good backup and you can only restore to the last known good backup, which could be weeks or months old (in which case, you’ve now lost weeks or months of data).
Keep in mind that when backup software runs, most of them will SKIP any file that it sees as open. Therefore, it is a good practice to save and close out of any programs and save any data that you want to be backed up. In the case of operating system backups, most OS backup utilities will take advantage of the Volume Shadow Copy Service, which creates a copy of the OS and program files in the background, thus allowing the image to be taken while the system is still running.
Choosing Backup Software
If you choose to not use Microsoft’s built in utilities (typically because of different backup requirements), there are hundreds of other utilities available. There are some decent freeware applications that handle backups. The one I use is called Macrium Reflect. It comes in a paid version and a free version. You will find that you may have to sacrifice features in order to get something free. However, the reason why I like Macrium Reflect is that the free edition solves all of the requirements that I have for backup:
- Allows me to create a system image (backup of the OS).
- Allows me to back up data in my data storage location (although I use a different solution for this).
- Compresses my backups to save space on my backup device.
- Ability to keep many versions of a backup.
- Free versions typically do not manage this for you.
- Allows me to back up my data on a schedule.
- A simple restoration process.
A Complete Solution
With all of the above mentioned items, it sounds like we have a lot of possibilities for backup. However, in my own configuration, I use all of the above. Having a separate data storage location protects the operating system if I need to reload/restore for any reason, without affecting the data in my data storage location. If my hard drive crashes, I have an external hard drive that I back up to nightly, taking both operating system and data storage backups. From there, I have CrashPlan configured to run a backup of my backup external hard drive, giving me a complete offsite backup, in the event that something were to happen to my external hard drive. This configuration gives me multiple restore points. If my OS crashes, my hard drive crashes or I lose a file, AND my external hard drive is still intact, then I can restore from the external hard drive. If something were to happen to the primary backup, I have a secondary copy of my backup on the cloud.
If at any time, any point of the complete solution is to fail, then that point of failure must be investigated and corrected. Because we have two backups doesn’t mean that we should be comfortable with having just one, if one fails. If the cloud backup fails, now I’m at risk of my building burning down or theft. If my external hard drive crashes, now I have a double failure, since my offsite backup is set to back up my backup (which is a good justification to have an offsite backup service back up BOTH the backup and the actual data set).
Restoration
A backup is only good if you can restore your data, in the same state that it was in when it was backed up. If a file is corrupted when you took the backup, then the file will be corrupted when it is restored. You should make it a point every so often to rest your restoration procedures to make sure they work. Testing data storage restorations is pretty easy. However, the operating system is a bigger nut to crack, in that you pretty much have to take the hard drive out of your computer, replace it with a spare, perform the restore and see where you stand. Don’t let this discourage you. It is ALWAYS a good idea to take a backup, even if you don’t test the restore procedures. However, if you want to ensure a good backup, it’s good to test the restoration process to make sure you are getting what you expect when you actually do lose your data.
Final Thoughts
Backup is something that should be taken very seriously, if you wish to prevent data loss. If you don’t care, that’s one thing. However, if you put any serious time or effort into something and store that effort on your computer, chances are you don’t want that effort to be for nothing. Losing data is a serious issue and can cause more problems than what it’s worth. Do not wait until you’ve actually lost data to learn the importance of backups. Be proactive about your data and don’t wait until its too late. When it’s gone, it’s gone. Data recovery services are VERY expensive (over $1000, ask Greg about it) and can take a significant amount of time to get the data back. The only other option is to try to duplicate the effort you put in, which probably won’t be as good as the original effort, because you are more concerned with duplicating what you had. Do yourself a HUGE favor and BACK UP YOUR DATA.
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