For my readers in Georgia you know that our years-long drought that sent lake levels to record lows was permanently erased with our recent rainfall.. in a near-biblical manner, I might add.  I hope and pray that none of you were adversely affected by the flooding, and if you were I hope you are well on your way to normalcy.

You have seen the pictures of homes in Georgia inundated by floodwaters that the owners never saw coming.. floodwaters swallowing basements, first and in some cases the second floor of some homes.  Think about that for a second.. and think about this – where are you sitting right now?  Your spare room in the basement?  Your home office on the main floor of your home?  I’ll bet you are.

Floods are just one sort of natural disaster that those of us in the IT industry have to be concerned about.  The level of paranoia I have to plan for in day-to-day operations of a business would blow your mind.  Since my company’s main line of business is providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) I have to be prepared for nearly anything that could possibly happen or we’re not doing business at all.  Not Good.

The cornerstone of my company’s disaster recovery plan is our backup strategy.  We certify to our customers that we keep multiple copies of our data backed up in multiple locations and we also certify that those backups are secure.   Keeping our customer data protected is one thing.. but for you, the home user – is data backup as important for you?  I can’t answer that for you, so think to yourself about the data that might be on your computer right now.. photos, emails, financial data, documents.. can you reproduce those if your hard drive dies?  Many people can’t.. myself included.  The sad thing for those that have experienced this sort of data loss is that it is completely preventable, and the cost is far lower than you think.  You’ll need two things:

  • I recommend and use disk imaging software.  This sort of software takes a complete snapshot of your computer’s filesystem and can be easily restored just as it was when that “snapshot” was taken, even to different computer hardware.
  • Creating a backup to the same system that it came from is no backup strategy at all.. you’ll lose the backup with the rest of the system if something bad happens.  You need an external hard drive or a internet-based backup storage system to get your data away from your system.

On the software side I use and highly recommend Acronis True Image.  I have backed up AND successfully recovered many systems with this software.  It is simple and efficient to use, and at a list price of $50 it is really inexpensive.  The newest version of this software also allows you to store your backup online with the manufacturer.. so you can restore your data anywhere in the world that is necessary.

If online backup just isn’t for you I recommend an external usb hard drive.  I currently use a Seagate FreeAgent Go external drive.  It is really small and is usb-powered.. you can easily move the drive to your safe deposit box at your bank, to a relative’s house, or anywhere else you deem safe.  At around $80 this purchase is also very much worth it.

If you would like to share your strategy or discuss this topic in greater depth I invite you to leave a comment below.  I look forward to reading your responses!