Have you checked your Backup

The backup message is slowly getting through. We are finding it more common for people to say “Yes, I have a backup” rather than “Mmm… I’ve been meaning to sort that out”.

However, it is not just enough to ‘have’ a backup. How often do you do your backup? OK, that does depend on how much data you produce. A small business owner should back up every day. If you are a home user and just check email and browse the internet most days, then you might get away with weekly. Doing your backup ‘every so often’ simply leaves you exposed to that unforeseen issue, for which you set up the backup! Get in the backup habit and stick to it.

So, as doing a backup becomes more mainstream, it leads to the question “How often do you check your backup?” It’s all very good thinking things are working, but you should really check it is working.

For most people it is easy, just check to see if your backup has the last thing you did in it!

For some people, the issue has just become “How do I get into my backup?” This is rather an awkward one, which we do encounter from time to time. If you used a specific piece of software which creates a specific archive of the information, then you can find that you need this software to read your backup. In other words, rather than take a copy of your photo and add it to your backup drive, the software adds your photo to a larger archive file, which requires the software to access the archive file. We are not too keen on these types of backups, which often then see you tied into that software product.

Our message is therefore a simple one; do your backup frequently and check your back up from time to time.

Backup