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by Tim Henry
Its just a matter of time before you experience a hard drive problem.
Are you prepared to loose your data? If your hard drive crashed right
now do you have an action plan to follow?
Most people only think of backing up their data after they experience a
problem. Don't set yourself up for a data loss disaster.
Your data integrity action plan should consist of the following:
1) How often you will back up your data
2) What data you will back up
3) What back up procedure you will use
How often you back up your data can only be determined by how important
you feel it is. Answer this question "If my hard drive crashed right
now, I would be alright if I had the data from at least (time) ago".
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Of course you would want everything but if you could have the data from
1 month, or 6 months ago would that be sufficient? Whatever time is
sufficient mark it on your calendar both a hard copy and set up a
meeting on your PC to remind you.
You change your smoke detector batteries when you turn your clock back
and when you turn it ahead right? Well back up your data then too.
If you don't change your clocks then pick some holidays or special dates
that happen close to the timeframe you want to back up your data so you
won't forget.
What data you back up depends on how you use your PC. Some of the key
directories, if you are using Windows, are the My Documents, Favorites
and Desktop directories.
Remember if you are using multiple profiles on your PC then the three
directories above can be different for each profile and each one would
need to be backed up.
You will also want to include your email data. Don't forget to write
down the email accounts you have. You should also write down any
username and passwords so they are not lost. You should look at every
directory to see if it has information that you would need.
Make a list of all the software programs you are using. If you have the
physical CDs put them all together in a safe location.
Don't forget the CDs for your peripherals like your scanner, digital
camera, PDA etc… Collecting these CDs may remind you of additional data
that you need to back up.
If you are running software that you installed from downloaded files,
burn them to a CD-R and add it to your collection. If you use a CD-R or
DVD-R you can update it as you download and install new applications.
What procedure you use to back up your data can be determined by the
amount of data you want to back up. Your data might fit onto a CD or DVD
in which case you just need to burn it and you're done.
If it spans multiple DVDs then you might want to consider getting a
second hard drive to copy your data onto. If you are not comfortable
with adding a second internal hard drive or you are using a laptop then
you can purchase an external hard drive to back up your data.
The information you have on your hard drive could disappear in a flash.
If you don't want to spend up to $3,000 to have a data recovery company
retrieve what information they can from your hard drive, then take a few
minutes right now and create your back up action plan.
If you ever have a data emergency your action plan will be your
insurance policy. If you adhere to it, your valuable data will adhere to
you! This article provided courtesy of http://www.wifi-buyers-guide.com
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