People go to great lengths to protect their data from hackers, scams, viruses, etc. and they should, However in this article, I am going to talk about simply not losing your data.
It seems every year I get at least one call from someone who says “I had a computer problem and lost all my data”. There is no reason for this and I am going to talk about two simple things that can help prevent it
Backups:
In my office, I don’t just do backups but I do many redundant backups. Every night each drive is backed up. Then that same drive is “cloned” to another drive. Then all file data is copied to another office computer. Critical data is then backup up offsite.
There was a time when this type of redundancy would not have been possible but now storage space is cheap and readily available. There is simply no excuse for ever losing “all your data”. I once had a main drive failure toward the end of tax season and was back up and running (as if nothing had happened) the same day.
Surge Protectors:
Everyone uses surge protected power strips. I have many in my office. They are convenient and they last forever (or do they?).
What many people don’t realize is that while the power strip may work forever, the surge protection does not. It will fail over time. It is generally recommended that these be replaced every 2-3 years. Even more often if your area is subject to a lot of brown outs or spikes.
What many people also don’t realize is that you can overload a power strip by “daisy chaining” them together (plugging one strip into another). Some appliances (such as printers) put a heavy load on the strip by themselves and plugging more and more into it not only diminishes its effectiveness but creates a safety hazard. Modern surge protected power strips have many outlets, configurations, and protections to suit your needs. You should make certain they are doing the job as intended.
While protecting your data from outside invaders is, of course, very important. Making certain your data can’t simply “be lost” should be your first line of defense.