Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Data Backup - Whats Out There Other Than Online?


Question...

Other than an online backup solution, what is a basic setup that you recommend for keeping your computer data backed up?

Answer: Pacific NorthWest Computers recommends getting a small portable hard drive for each individual computer you may have at your home/office. We have seen clients use one hard drive for multiple computers but that usually ends up being more of a hassle rather than a convenience. Plus if that one drive was to fail, everyone's data could be lost! So with an individual drive for each computer, backups can be scheduled and completely automated.  Additionally, in the case of hard drive failure, you only have to worry about the data for that one user versus potentially losing all of the data for multiple users!
If you want to make sure you data is REALLY secure, A Network Accessible Storage drive (also known as a NAS drive) is another option to take a look at. A NAS is like an external hard drive that is setup over your network. Besides creating easy access to data from any computer connected to that network, it also uses multiple hard drives to protect your data in the event that one of the drives was to fail. With a NAS, all your data and information is mirrored to additional drives so in the event a hard drive fails you don't lose any data OR have any down time! For businesses, no down time is VERY important!

So there are some other options as well, but this is a good starting point :)

If you have any general data backup questions or questions about your data backup system, give us a call or shoot us an email today!! 
360-624-7379
Jon@pnwcomputers.com
www.pnwcomputers.com


2 comments:

  1. can I ask? I don't really know how to back up my computer. how much memory needed to back up and also what are those files I should backup aside from my important file?

    thanks,
    Loy =)
    floworks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It all depends on what you need to back up!
      Size of your backup is going to be determined by what you are actually backing up. Some people don't have anything they need to have backed up while a photography professional may have Gigabytes upon Gigabytes of data to be backed up. If you get a good deal on a 1TB hard drive or something, you won't have to worry about capacity!

      As far as 'What needs to be backed up', its usually the things that people absolutely CAN'T afford to lose; pictures, documents, etc :)

      Delete