A backup, or the process of backing up, refers to the copying into an archive file of computer data so it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is “back up”
Backups have two distinct purposes. The primary purpose is to recover data after its loss, be it by data deletion or corruption. Data loss can be a common experience of computer users; a 2008 survey found that 66% of respondents had lost files on their home PC. The secondary purpose of backups is to recover data from an earlier time, according to a user-defined data retention policy, typically configured within a backup application for how long copies of data are required.[3] Though backups represent a simple form of disaster recovery and should be part of any disaster recovery plan, backups by themselves should not be considered a complete disaster recovery plan. One reason for this is that not all backup systems are able to reconstitute a computer system or other complex configuration such as a computer cluster, active directory server, or database server by simply restoring data from a backup.
Backup methods and types: Full Backups. System Image, incremental Backups, Differential, Continuous Data Protection.
Recommendation for Backing up files. Business, Home Personal use,
- Business: recommend backing up company files on a nightly basis that reside on a server, or workstation/server. Try if possible to backup to a Backup Server Array(NAS), external hard drive (USB, Firewire, thunderbolt, Fiberchannel, SCSI, eSATA) , a Network Attached Hard Drive, Optical Media / Tape or Online backup service (Amazon, Mozy, Carbonite, onedrive, Google, and others)
——-Never Backup to the Hard Drive or RAID ARRAY you are backing up from. This is Common with a Desktop or Laptop computer with one hard drive. Simply put when a hard drive fails, you will lose your files and your back up files. Backup Media (hard drives, Flash Drives, Optical Media and tape are inexpensive compared to trying to recreate data files, documents, spreadsheets, databases, and loss time.
2) Business: recommend when backing up always keep a log file on each backup to check what was or what not backed up and why.
3) Business: recommend working with databases, be aware some backup systems will not backup MS SQL, MySQL, SQL, Quick books databases correctly, always check to see if your database is backed up successfully and can be run from a restored copy.
4:) Business Recommend Set a time schedule to recover random files from backup copies to make sure your backup system is working correctly. and log or record the success or failure.
Home Personal Use:
- Backup is recommended
- Backup to a external hard drive or cloud based backup
- Try to backup regularly (at least once a week)
Business Use
- Backup is recommended
- Backup Daily/nightly
- Backup to a set of backup Drives, Servers, cloud based or optical media
- Keep logs of backup attempts with success and failure attempts
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