Online Backup - Learn from Experience!
This month's newsletter has been slightly delayed while I got
stuck into the task of installing a new computer. The old one had lasted 4 years
but was showing signs of age and was freezing up after complex internet
searches.
It is only when you come to reinstall lots of files that you
really appreciate the importance of good backup. And, it was only after I
thought I had completed the new installation, that I realised that a substantial
number of important files were missing and had never been backed up!
Fortunately the experience proves that, though I may have
failed in ensuring all my relevant files were properly backed up, my partners at
Clunk Click, who specialise in this area, came through with colours flying.
So here are some lessons that you may think you know, but like
me, you may not have really learned.
- There is no point in backing up program files. To
prevent copying, most software vendors force you to reinstall from disc
or download from the internet each time you want to install.
- However most programs also generate user data. These
files must be backed up - and sometimes it is difficult to see where
data is filed and to check that it includes all the information
generated by its use - customer correspondence, templates, personal
configuration etc.
- Floppy disks are now of limited use for taking
copies, because so many files are too large for them. The normal
alternative to online backup (apart from those horrible tapes!) is to
write to a CD. That may be fine for those files you only change once in
a blue moon; but is just not realistic for any daily updates. Who can
honestly claim to take copies of all their files daily?
- When you do something very infrequently, you forget
the details. So, you need SUPPORT - preferably human. I phoned Clunk
Click support desk twice and was put through immediately both times.
Have you experienced such service recently?
So, all those of you who have not proved the efficiency of
their own backup procedures in the last 6 months ( and I bet that includes a
majority of readers), do yourselves a favour, go to:
http://www.clunkclick.net/w4m/index.htm
NOW, before it's too late!
Stephen Orr
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