What if your computer crashed right now, what would you do? What would happen to your data? And what would happen to your business on a short-term basis?
That was exactly what happened to my computer 2 weekends ago. What could be a major catastrophe was now made an inconvenience when my dear husband backed up my computer right before we left the house for our short weekend trip. I even blogged about it here: When Losing Your Data Is Merely An Inconvenience.
It was a huge inconvenience because I had to go back to using an old computer, Blue Dino as I called him - Dell Inspiron 5100 that weighed a ton. It took over 6 hours to spool over 10,000 emails since I have not turned that pc on for ages. Other than that, it was a fairly acceptable experience while I awaited for my Dell technician to show up (the next day). Dell's Extended Warranty had saved my sanity several times over but that it is another story for another day.
Two week later, I'm back in full force, known as the New BackUp Queen. I ordered a new Dell desktop as my backup computer - should this event ever occurred again.
This is what my husband did:
My laptop is my main computer for work. The new desktop is used for daily backups utilizing SyncToy 2.0 - a software offered by Microsoft. Did I mention it is free? And I set Microsoft Scheduler on my desktop to ask it to sync with my laptop everyday at 1am in the morning. This backup synchronization is performed wirelessly.
I dont need to hook my laptop up to anything. Every time it syncs, it copies the changes. The end result, by 1am every morning, I will have 2 copies of everything on both machines. Every night, I will shut down Microsoft Outlook - my tool for email so it would synchronize that data too.
I could also work on my desktop if I choose. When it performs its daily task, it copies the new data/ changes on my laptop.
For proper instructions, you may find it here.
To download the SyncToy v2.0, click here.
Extra Backup Can Never Hurt
I still plan to backup my data on an External Drive like I normally would. (This was what I recovered when my computer crashed 2 weeks ago). I had invested about $160 just a few weeks ago and this in itself has truly saved my sanity.
I use this external drive like another storage on my computer. Copied the file onto my Blue Dino and worked pretty much flawlessly.
When you get freaky, you have another back up plan to your other back up plans:
I'm really starting to get very freaky about these backups. So, I will back-up my data with 2 of the online storages: Carbonite and Mozy. The online sites offer unlimited backup for very little money, $55 per year and $5/month respectively. They are very little money for a huge piece of mind.
What I Learnt Through My Experience:
- Backup is indeed crucial to my livelihood.
- But having another good complimentary/ substitute device to my current workspace is equally as important.
- Hence, I invested another $500 for a new Desktop ($150 of that is the flat-screen monitor I drooled over for years).
What I Realized ...
No one really thinks about these stuff until bad things happened. As a small business owner, dropping another few hundred dollars here and there is NOT fun for me. But I'm glad I did and I won't ever go without 2 working computers, compatible to each other.
PS: I write ALL my blog posts on my computer before I publish it on the internet. I don't just start writing them online, on any blog platforms.
Note: Also, take an initiative to find out how often your websites are backed up by your website providers. I recently found out some information I do not like.
Happy Backing Up. Please use my learning experience to save you alot of heartache in the future.
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Backing Up Your Data Is Not A Choice, It Is A Must-Do For Your Business.
