Backing up your data
Many organisations do not understand the need for backing up their data regardless of the fact that in a matter of seconds, hundreds of hours of labour, intellectual property and other valuable information can disappear forever when a hard drive crashes, a natural disaster occurs, there's a theft, a minor accident of a spilt cup of coffee, a power surge or a virus that destroys your data.
Many of these situations are unpredictable and can literally happen to anyone at any time.
With cloud (Internet-based) computing many organisations using Facebook, MySpace, Google docs, blogs and various other cloud services, there is increasingly less and less concern regarding back-ups. In recent times we have seen Google services suffer 2 outages, no one can predict that their photo album at PICASA or their Blog will not be hacked and deleted. Likewise, if you are suspected of a breach in the Terms of Service for a cloud service your account and data will be deleted without notice.
Implementing a simple (and constantly maintained) back-up plan for both internal data and data on cloud services will have an initial cost but will give your organisation peace of mind and an insurance policy to regain the data in the case that it is lost or damaged.
Back-up policy and procedures
It is important that your back-up procedures are well documented. This includes the back-up cycle and method, where the backups are stored, the person responsible for the back-ups and the restoring of files, if required.
Your written policy should include a regular time to test the back-ups are working and a plan to include mobile devices such as PDA’s, cellphones and mp3 players which are often used to store critical podcasts and other information for your organisation.
Depending on how valuable your information is to your organisation there are commercial services that will take your back-up and store it in secure places. Some banks offer commercial services to lease part of their vaults, there are online back-up services, or you may deem it necessary to have your data back-up stored in a different part of the country that may not be as prone to natural disasters compared to where your offices are. Obviously, a not-for-profit may not go to the same measures a commercial entity will to store and retrieve their backed up data, but all organisations should make a back-up of their data.
What to back up
For data such as photos, archival material, library resources and any other data that does not change could be backed up to a DVD or similar storage and left out of the regular back up system.
System files, user accounts etc should also be backed up once and then kept separate from your daily backups unless your system changes regularly.
Data that is modified on a daily basis should be included in your daily back up cycle.
Back-up methods
There are four different back-up methods, which could be used, in your back-up cycles. Depending on your budget and resources, each organisation will choose a different method and cycle.
Full back-up method
Backs up all of your data including system files and data. This could be a time consuming task and expensive to store. But all of your data is in one place to restore if required.
Differential back-up method
Backs up all the files that were changed since the last full back-up method was deployed. Allows for two back-up devices should you be required to restore your data.
Incremental Back up method
Files modified since the last incremental or differential back-up are backed up. This method requires a back-up device for every day. Thought the backing up is the fastest method it can be the slowest method of retoration. An example is if you last did a full back up on Friday, then on Thursday you needed to restore your data, you would have data stored on a number of back-up devices.
Back-up cycles
There are three main back-up cycles which ensure a consistent and thorough backup if a backup method is used:
Round Robin
Usually, a full back-up copy is done on Friday, and incremental/differential backup copies on all other days. In this case, 5 media will be enough for 1 week's loop (if you work 5 days per week). All data media in round robin are used in this cycle. Technically, it's a process of writing your most current back-up to the media with the oldest data.
GFS
GFS (short for Grandfather-Father-Son). The most commonly used media rotation schedule is "Grandfather-Father-Son." GFS has an hierarchical structure. This scheme uses daily (Son), weekly (Father), and monthly (Grandfather) back-up sets.
Four back-up media are labelled for the day of the week each backs up. For example, Monday through Thursday. Typically, incremental/differential back-ups are performed on the "Son" group of media. This media is reused each week on the day matching its label.
A set of up to five weekly back-up media is labelled "Week1," "Week2," and so on. Full back-ups are recorded weekly, on which day that a "Son" media is not used. The "Father" media is reused monthly.
The final set of three media is labelled "Month1," "Month2," and so on, according to which month of the quarter they will be used. This "Grandfather" media records full back-ups on the last business day of each month and is reused quarterly. Each of these "media" may be a single medium or a set of mediums, depending on the amount of data to back up. A total of 12 media sets are required for this basic rotation scheme, allowing for a history of two to three months.
Storage Media
- DVD – 4.7 GB to 17.08 GB
- CD – 750 MB
- Tape – Up to 1000 GB
- Flash Drives – Various sizes from 1GB to 5GB (at time of writing).
- Memory Sticks – Various sizes from 1GB to 5GB (at time of writing).
- External Hard drive – Common sizes range from 60GB to 120GB (at time of writing).
Tutorials on back-ups
Whilst there are commercial back-up software packages available, this article provides tutorials for the default Windows back-up software and that of the more popular Cloud services.
Windows Vista
A detailed tutorial is available at: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/backup.aspx
Windows XP
If you use Windows XP Professional, the Windows Backup utility (Ntbackup.exe) is available form the Control Panel. If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you'll need to follow these steps to install the utility:
- Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and, if necessary, double-click the CD icon in My Computer.
- On the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen, click Perform Additional Tasks.
- Click Browse this CD.
- In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, and then Ntbackup.
- Double-click Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility.
Using the Backup utility:
- Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup to start the wizard.
- Click Next to skip past the opening page, choose Back up files and settings from the second page, and then click Next.
- Select the files you want to back up
- Select a media to back up your data to.
- Select frequency
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 Backup (NTBackup) includes a wizard that makes it easier to configure and schedule backup jobs. NTBackup is included in all versions of Windows 2000. To automatically schedule a backup job:
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.
- Click Backup Wizard, and then click Next.
- On the What to Back Up page of the wizard, click the appropriate option for the data that you want to save, and then click Next.
Note: If you click Back up selected files, drives, or network data, a dialog box is displayed in which you can select the drives, folders, and files that you want to back up. If you want to back up the entire computer, including the system state, click Back up everything on my computer.
On the Where to Store the Backup page, click the location (file or storage device) where you want to store the backup, type the name that you want to use to identify the backup in the Backup media or file name box, and then click Next.
Note: If you are backing up to a file, type the complete path (for example, c:\backups\mybackup.bkf). If you are backing up to a tape device, insert your back-up media if you have not already done so.
Click the Advanced button.
Additional backup options are displayed, including the scheduling options. In the following dialog boxes, enter the appropriate information:
- Type of Backup
- How to Back Up
- Media Options
- Backup Label
If you want to start the backup job immediately, when the When to Back Up page is displayed, click Now, and then click Next.
To schedule the job, click Later, type your credentials in the dialog box that is displayed, and then click OK.
Type a name in the Job Name box, and then click Set Schedule.
When several options are displayed, including Schedule Task, Start Time, and so on, enter the appropriate information, and then click OK.
Verify the start date, and then click Next.
Click Finish.
To view or make changes to the scheduled job, click the Scheduled Jobs tab on the main Backup dialog box, and then double-click your selection. Alternatively, double-click Scheduled Tasks in Control Panel.
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300135
Google Docs/Blog
There are two scripts that can be freely downloaded and installed to back up your Google Docs. A manual save option from Grease Monkey http://1st-soft.net/gdd/ and an automated process from Syncplicity http://syncplicity.com/
More recently Google released two new ways to back up your Google files and word documents, pdfs etc.
The first allows you to download and zip up your Google files, including Blogs - "Convert, Zip and Download". The second allows you to upload multiple files to Google Docs. Both options provide an alternative to your primary file storage to be used for backing up your files.
The second option "Convert, Zip and Download". feature lets you bundle your Google Docs in a format of your choice wether it be Microsoft Office, Open Office, PDF, etc. You can then download them into a zip file and either work on them offline or add them to your backup.
Uploading multiple files from Google Docs
- Click the Upload button on the Docs list homepage.
- Click Select files to upload files from your computer.
- When the Browse dialog is open press Shift and click the files you'd like to upload to Google Docs (as you would to select multiple files on your computer).
OR
click the Select more files link that appears after you upload the first file.
- Pick a folder to which you'd like to upload the files (this is optional), and click the Start upload button.
Google Downloads
Select one or more files and then click on "Export" from the "More Actions" menu. Next, pick the format (e.g. PDF, Microsoft Word, etc) you want for your exported files. Finally, click "Continue" and we'll give you a nice zip file to download that has all your content. Currently there is a data limit of 500 MB per zip file.
Web Mail
You can forward a copy to an alternative address. Alternatively you can check to see if there is an Export to delaminated txt, XML or similar within your Web Mail application.
Google Reader
In Google Reader, click on “Manage subscriptions” in the lower left corner, then on “Import/Export”, and then on “Export your subscriptions as an OPML file.”
For other online RSS feeds look for an Export option
Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar
Google Calendar can be synchronised with Outlook via the following download: www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
iGoogle
Export iGoogle settings to your computer and you’ll get an XML file containing everything you need to restore the contents of your iGoogle account.
Blogger
A free download is available at www.codeplex.com/bloggerbackup. If you use Blogger on your own domain, each blog entry will automatically be saved as individual files on your FTP server.
PICASA
Select “Tools” and then click “Backup Pictures”.