The subject of backups causes a great deal of anguish for many of us. All the time, we hear repeatedly, the importance of backing up our computer. Things generally go downhill from this point. Unless one has experienced losing valuable or important documents and/or information, the importance of having current and verified backups doesn't have a high priority with us. Even if you have lost important documents, it is entirely likely you are still in the dark about having a consistent and simple procedure for creating complete and verifiable data backups. Who do you think is responsible for this sad state of affairs? Partially, any blame or fault lies with each of us.
However….In my opinion, a significantly greater share of the blame lies with the computer industry and all of the players involved: beginning with hardware and software manufacturers, then the companies selling computers and lastly your friendly (or not, as the case may be) computer consultant and/or technician. In this article, I will attempt to explain just why backups are important and why so many of us don't ensure we maintain current and verified backups of our valuable documents, pictures, music, videos and "stuff".
In order to save valuable electrons, what with all valuable space they occupy, when I refer to "data" I mean documents, pictures, music, videos, anything you have on your computer which has value to you.
Do you have a current and verified backup of your data?
In my experience most people will answer either "no" or a variation of "huh?" Of the people that answer "yes" a large number do not fully understand either the "current" or "verified" parts of the question. This will be explained later.
First, are you prepared and willing to lose every piece of data on your computer? Are you willing to accept never being able to listen to the music you have downloaded and collected on your computer over the years? Are you willing to accept not being able to access the letters you have printed or emailed to family, friends, employers, or anyone else? What about all those adorable pictures of children, parents, relatives and pets? Are you willing to accept losing them forever? If the answer is an unqualified "yes" to all of these questions then I truthfully can’t see why you would be interested in reading the rest of this article. Time saved. Have a nice day!
If the answer to any of the preceding questions was "no" or you have doubts and aren't certain, then stay tuned for more, hopefully, useful information.
FULL DISCLOSURE
(although in teeny tiny type)
I have lost valuable documents and other irreplaceable data because my backup procedures were ignored or non-existent. Like the shoemakers children without shoes, I, a theoretically qualified computer technician and consultant, have lost valuable data due to my hubris in thinking "It won't happen to me." Famous last words. It was a very painful and expensive experience I never want to go through again.
Reinstalling an operating system and your application software is easy when compared to recreating lost data. In many instances, it is simply impossible to recreate lost data. When it is possible, usually the cost in time and effort is simply unacceptable.
The computer industry, from software manufacturers to hardware providers and consultants, get to take much of the blame for people not having adequate current and verified backups available. You are wondering “why?” I’m going to explain.
Who takes responsibility for the problem? Generally speaking, the issue of backups can be compared to a game of “hot potato.” No one wants the “hot potato”, with everyone passing the problem on to the next guy and nobody willing to accept any share of responsibility. Unfortunately, this also includes the people whose data is at risk. The one exception to this rule is generally manufacturers of backup hardware and software. They can’t win either because of frequent accusations of self interest (partially true) and even conflict of interest (which makes no sense in my mind).
Beginning with the operating system manufacturers, the products they supply have backups as a secondary fill-in, more of an afterthought than a high priority. Windows, by default, embeds all customer data files on the same drive and in difficult-to-find locations. Many application software packages, by default, save data files within the same folders where the program files are installed. In my opinion this is not a good situation.
Hardware manufacturers don’t like to make a big deal about doing backups, unless they are selling backup hardware. Why? How comfortable would you be about buying a product that, because of the advertising and sales pitch, left you with the feeling the hardware might fail and you are advised to do backups as a safety measure?
Far too many application software manufacturers, for many of the same reasons as hardware manufacturers, also don’t stress the importance of backing up files. What is interesting is that many application software packages automatically save data files and some even save different versions of your data files. This type of backup is not intended to protect you from either hardware failure or loss, only from “oops” while using the software.
I’m not going to lay any guilt with computer salespeople. They rarely have an understanding of what they are selling. Computer consultants and technicians are generally the last link in this particular chain of woe. Too often consultants and technicians are under pressure to provide the cheapest “solution” to whatever the “issue du jour” is. Efforts to explain why backup solutions should be adopted are met with disinterest or hostility.
There is a trend of not wanting to raise the issue of the importance of having consistent and verifiable backup procedures. Human nature. We like to present the exciting and sexy solutions. Backups are not exciting or sexy. Then there is the problem with convincing a client to expend money and time doing something they just don’t see the need for. Until it is too late. The old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is true and applicable when thinking of data backups.
What to backup?
Backing up the operating system and application programs, unless using imaging software, is not effective. Unless you can restore a computer to a known working state, all too often backups will include the viruses, spyware or corruption that cause many operational problems. It is relatively simple (from our perspective, you may have a differing opinion) to restore a computer to working order, even if it means a complete FDISK, format and reinstall of the operating system and application software. Operating systems and application software alone are now consuming tens and even hundreds of gigabytes of hard drive space. Regular backups of the operating system and software is rarely feasible. In many cases, not even possible. Different ideas must be implemented to have usable “backups” of the computer operating system and installed software. This topic is a separate issue which will be covered in another article.
The data; documents, media files, databases, videos and such are what needs to be backed up. The default system configuration of Windows is effectively hiding your data in numerous locations, scattered all over the hard drive, often imbedded with application software, sharing the same hard drive and partition as the OS. This is a substantial problem. It makes figuring out what to backup more difficult. When doing a backup is difficult, it usually isn’t performed on a regular basis. Most people find themselves continually short of time, whether in their work or personal lives. If a backup procedure can be automated, requiring minimal or no interaction with the person using the computer, then the backup is much more likely to be performed. Simple human nature.
In a perfect world, all data files would be saved on a different physical hard drive from the operating system and program files. These hard drives would have 100 year data recovery and same day on-site guarantees. We do not live in a perfect world, as such we have to adjust.
CVCS systems are configured with multiple RAID1 drive arrays. The first RAID array contains the operating system. The second RAID array is dedicated to the primary data. Where sufficient hard drive space exists, a secondary data partition is created on the first RAID array. Each of these systems has four hard drives to implement this configuration. If a hard drive fails, no data is lost. The operating system will not be destroyed. We have an opportunity to replace the failed drive and rebuild the degraded array. This configuration provides a degree of data and OS protection. It is not a true backup.
Data from one system is copied to other computers on our network. This is a backup, although all data still resides within one building. A fire would potentially wipe everything out. The next stage is to take backups and store them on external media, whether optical (DVD) or external hard drives. We have found tape backup technology is no longer cost effective for most individuals or companies to use. Optical media, such as a writable DVD, are useful when the data volumes are relatively small. External or removable hard drives have become a lowcost, viable alternative for backing up large quantities of data. Terabyte size (1,000,000,000,000 bytes) external hard drives are now available in the $200.00 (or less) range.
So all you need to do is copy your data to an external hard drive and you have a backup, right? Not quite. An effective backup solution incorporates VERIFICATION, ensuring the backed up data is identical to the data on the system being backed up. This means using software that will go back and compare every file on the backup media with the corresponding original file on the system being backed up. A manual file compare solution isn’t going to work. Who is going to spend the time doing this? If the process isn’t simple, with little time and effort required, it will not be done reliably.
Another critical factor is having multiple copies of backed up data going back in time. When all your backed up data is on one external hard drive, you only have one backup. What if that hard drive fails, goes missing or is next to the computer during that fire? You need to have multiple backup media. We recommend a minimum of three external drives if using hard drives for data backup. The most recent backup should be stored offsite at a separate location. Rotate the drives so that you have at least three copies of your data at different stages. Depending upon the volume of data to be backed up and the size of the external hard drives, it is often viable to have numerous copies of backups on the same media.
Having multiple copies of data over time is important for another reason. What if an important file was accidentally deleted and you didn’t discover this for weeks or months? If you have backups going back over a long time the likelihood of being able to recover that specific file from an old backup media is reasonably good.
If your total data volume is less than 4.4 Gb then using a DVD burner and DVD media is likely your most effective backup media. This will also be your least expensive option with DVD media costing less than a dollar each on average. Using backup software which incorporates data compression, which all good backup programs do, you can often get around 7 Gb backed up to one DVD media. Compression ratios vary widely depending on the type of data. For example, video files usually are already at maximum compression. Spreadsheet files frequently have a 3:1 compression ratio. Text files seem to average a 2:1 compression ratio. The saying “your mileage may vary” definitely applies. Different types of data tend to have similar compression factors but it all depends on what data you have to be backed up and what type it is. Different software also has differing compression capabilities depending on even more factors, such as what is the particular backup software optimized to do.
Is there a “one size fits all” data backup solution? No. There are numerous factors affecting what will be an effective backup strategy to use. Some of these factors include:
Risk tolerance to data loss.
Total volume of data to backup.
Type of data to be backed up.
Where the data is located (centralized on one server, or located on different computers).
Time available to perform backups.
We hope this article has answered more questions than it has raised. Please comment on this article offering your cexperiences, suggestions or questions. Creston Valley Computer Services is happy to assist in solving your computer problems and answering your questions.
loading...
