The 5 Dumbest Excuses for Not Backing Up Data

I am sure you have heard some of the humorous stories about dumb computer users. How about the guy who called customer support because the cup holder on his computer was broken only to find out that the cup holder was actually his CD ROM drive? Or what about the people who can't continue because their computer doesn't have an "Any" key to press? I guess we expect a person to have some level of competence if they own a computer. I can assure you that is not always the case.

If you think that sitting your 32oz Super-Gulp soft drink on your CD ROM drawer is dumb, then not backing up your data is downright stupid. It cost less than $50 to replace a CD ROM drive; lost data can cost thousands and in some cases it can bring down a business. And I guess if you can't press "Any" key to continue, then you are better off because you won't be able get anything important into your computer where it will be lost forever when you don't backup up your data.

The bigger problem is that most people can find the power switch and start their computers, and then build up valuable data. And then they make the dumbest mistake of all, they don't backup their data in any useful way. Not backing up data is the dumbest because it is the mistake that can cost you the most. Here are the 5 dumbest excuses I have come across for not backing up data.

1) My computer came with a recovery CD.

2) I bought the extended service plan.

3) Windows XP has System Restore built-in.

4) I have a disk recovery utility.

5) If there is a disaster, FEMA will help.

I don't have time right now to go into detail about why any of those are really dumb reasons to think that you don't need to backup your data. If you can't figure it out, then please post comments and we will get you some help.

Why Don't Users Backup Their Data?

In a previous article we pointed out how many computer users would not hesitate to purchase an extended warranty or service plan for their computer; however, many of these same users refuse to spend a few dollars a month to backup their data even when the data is more valuable than the computer. Why is this? I have a few ideas.

Data builds up quickly.
The average computer is used for several years. The amount of data that builds up on the system during this time is amazing. Usernames, passwords, photos, and other miscellaneous data can build up at a rate that most users simply do not appreciate. The average user has no idea of the amount of time it takes to recover from data loss due the fact that the computer contains data from several years of use.

Users do not place any real value on their data.
Ask the normal user what they use their computer for and what is stored on it an many times they will minimize the importance of their activities. Common responses I have heard are, "I only use it to surf the web, play games or do my taxes once a year." When users do not value the activities that they are using the computer for, they do not value the data that is stored on the computer. As a result of this attitude, there is no basic desire to backup their data until it is too late.

Users do not understand that computers require periodic maintenance.
In a previous article, I wrote about the need to periodically replace hard drives before they go bad. When I am working with users I try to use the example that hard drives need to be replaced just like the tires on automobiles. (and about as often) Unfortunately, users have no way looking at their hard drives and tell that the "tread is getting low," and the tires (hard drive) need to be replaced. You don't wait for your tires to blow-out and you should not wait for the hard drive to fail.

There are no "Idiot Lights" on computers.
Automotive manufactures learned this lesson decades ago... put a bright red light on the dash where the driver cannot ignore it. When one of these lights come on, the driver instinctually knows that something is wrong. This concept of "idiot lights" does not exist on computers. Microsoft tried a variation on this idea with their "Balloon" notices. Unfortunately, most of the messages that are displayed are informational in nature so the users soon begin to "tune them out" and ignore them. Many Dell systems have a series of small multi-colored LED's on the back of the computer to indicate the status of the internal components; however, the fact that the lights are on the back does not help the average user. Besides what does an amber LED light actually mean to the user even if they do notice it.

Users can "touch" a computer but cannot "touch" their data.
Many, many , many users cannot wrap their heads around the fact that there is data on their computer that needs to be preserved. Since they can't touch it, the concept that data is there is difficult for them to appreciate. I guess there is some psychology working here. The old adage that, "I will believe in a ghost when I see one" seems strangely appropriate. I honestly think that it would be better if the computer could get heavier as more data is saved. At least this way the user could pick up their computer periodically and tell that the data stored on it was increasing... maybe make the mouse heavier? Impossible, I know, but it would provide some tactile feedback that the computer was changing over time and that the data was there and increasing.

Users are not informed that backups are the Life Insurance Policies for their data.
Today any person can justify having a life insurance policy or disability policy, they understand the importance to them and their families. They would would never leave their family vulnerable to an untimely death or accident but they will leave their data vulnerable. As computers continue to penetrate our daily lives and more critical data is stored on them it is irresponsible for any computer user not to insure there data by backing it up. External hard drives are cheap, online backup services are free or cost a few dollars a month, there is no excuse not to have a data insurance policy.

Users are well intentioned but forgetful.
We are busy with our daily lives. We are very busy, and we simply forget about making backups. Since there is no "idiot lights" on the computer we simply forget to make the backups, or we setup an automated backup job and then never check on it, assuming that everything is fine and the backups are running correctly.

All of these issues are easily overcome by information and education. We, as technologists, have to educate users about the importance of their data. (even when they don't think its important) Eventually, computers will be so advanced that all data on the computer will be protected and will inform us when they are not running correctly or that a drive is going to fail. Until that day we have to work with users to help them change their misconceptions and ignorance about the importance of backing up their data, backing up their lives.

Agree? Disagree? Let us hear from you.

Don't Delay, Backup Your Data Now

I have personally talked with quite a few people in the last several months that are not sufficiently backing up their data. In most cases the data is considered critical to the business or owner and would cause significant hardship if lost. I am continuously examining the causes of this careless attitude toward backing up data.

Experienced computer professionals know that backing up data is a very serious and essential task. Just 25 years ago, only the largest corporations utilized computers to process data. Trained data processing professionals were responsible for the operation of the equipment and they thoroughly understood the seriousness of data backup and recovery. Now, almost every business of any size uses computers to track and automate finances, human resources, orders, scheduling and a variety of other operations. Computers and software have become significantly more accessible to non-computer professionals. The accessibility is a function of the affordability and the simplicity of use of modern systems. Small businesses may not have any professional IT assistance. Non-professionals can often install a computer system and set it up to perform the functions that it was purchased for. However, critical maintenance and backup procedures are often neglected or insufficient.

I am finding that many business owners and home computer users treat their computers like an appliance. They buy the computer from a retailer or internet source. Sometimes, they buy extended warranties. Actually, computers are more like automobiles than appliances. There are certain maintenance procedures that are required for ongoing safe operation. Apparently, a lot of computer owners don’t understand the necessity of certain maintenance-like procedures, like backing up data. And while most states have certain insurance requirements for automobiles, most businesses and computer owners are not bound by law to backup their data. Computers should not be treated like appliances; the valuable data on a computer is vulnerable to loss at any time. Computer warranties and maintenance contracts may get your computer back up and running in the case of a failure, but they will not recover lost data. In the vast majority of cases, the data is more valuable than the computer itself.

Unfortunately, many computer owners don’t place a high priority on data backup and recovery procedures until they suffer a loss. I have personally advised many such people to start a regular backup and recovery program. Almost all agree that they need to do just that, but most of them procrastinate until they have a serious problem. A surprising number of people call me only after they have had a costly data-loss experience and want to do something to protect against future losses. This is especially unfortunate because the cost of the first data loss event often amounts to more than a person or company would spend on a data backup solution for life.

I am still searching for the right words that can be used to convince the typical computer owner that their data can be lost at any moment. “Any moment”, is not an exaggeration. Computer hard disk technology is very good, but the technology is not a permanent storage medium for data. Hard disk drives do a wonderful job of storing data and allowing it to be retrieved quickly and on demand. However, computer hard disk drives wear out and are also vulnerable to a number of other failures. If your data cannot be easily replaced, then you should be making backup copies on a regular schedule. Don’t delay your data backup and recovery plans because your data could be lost on any day, including today.

Where Do You Start With Backups?

When it comes to backing up your data there is no "one size fits all" solution. One of the goals of this blog is to help inform the reader of what types of solutions and philosophies are available.

I have used every type of solution from automated scripts which simply copy files, to automated offsite software that emails detailed status reports. While each of these solutions have their pros and cons it is more important that you understand some of the backup concepts and philosophies that must be considered to successfully implement an appropriate solution. I usually start with these simple questions:

• What type of data do you need to backup? Files, databases, etc.
• How long do you need to keep the backups for?
• What is your budget?

Where do you start?

Backing Up Virtualized Machines

As a Systems Administrator my customers rely upon me to put procedures in place that will allow them to recover from numerous types of failures. One of the biggest challenges is recovering from a Windows operating system crash. To mitigate this type of failure; I have used the technique of cloning the operating system periodically in conjunction with daily backups.

In the past I have recommended cloning of operating systems as a overall part of your backup and recovery strategy. If you have ever worked with the existing cloning solutions then you are aware that there are many drawbacks. The most notable is that cloning software and hardware RAID do not play well together. Then there is the issue of the time it takes to clone a system. These restrictions make the ongoing cloning of live systems virtually impossible.

By virtualizing your operating systems, not only can you maximize your hardware investment, you can also dramatically improve your overall backup and recovery strategy. It's really quite simple; you shutdown the virtual machine and make a copy of the files... tada!! you have just made a perfect backup of the entire operating system! (the amount of time that the operating system is down depends upon the size of the virtual machine and the speed of the hard drives on the host machine)

I have found that even on low-end hardware I can make a complete backup of the virtual machine in under an hour. (your milage will vary) Once the virtual machines are copied I just FTP them to a different machine for long term storage. I use this technique weekly to make (what I refer to as) low-level backups of critical virtual machines for my customers. Please note that this low-level backup of the entire virtual machine does not replace the need to have daily offsite file and database backups. This low-level technique is designed to allow System Administrators to quickly recover from failure and perhaps sleep a little better at night.

I am the most familiar with the VMware virtualization products. VMware software is a very mature and robust system that can be used to virtualize your operating systems. (their entry level products are free) It even allows for scripts to automate the entire process. While the ability to recover from a operating system crash within minutes or hours is a dream for a sysadmin and many different solutions exist, virtualization is the most cost effective solution that I am aware of.

So let me bottom line this; if you do not know about virtualization then its time to learn! It can make your life a lot easier.

Apple's Time Machine Backup Software

Apple has recently provided a preview of some of the features in the next version of their operating system. Code named "Leopard", this software marks the first time that Apple has bundled backup software, named Time Machine, with their operating system. As an OS X user that works constantly with companies on their backup needs, I was very interested and pleased with Apple's incarnation of what backup software should be.

There is no doubt that the interface to Time Machine is the most intuitive design I have ever seen. The ability for the user to navigate forward or backwards within a rich graphical interface should make the process of restoring files easier then ever before. I expect that this new interface will be successful, very successful.

Apple has also made a excellent choice by integrating the software directly into the upcoming Leopard operating system. This allows for other programs to be "backup aware" and utilize Time Machine to manage their backups. For Instance if you have contact information in Address Book this information is automatically backed up by Time Machine and can be restored directly into the Address Book software.

Once Time Machine is installed and running it works without any configuration from the user. This capability cannot be overstated. The greatest difficulties in getting people to use backup software is that many times the initial configuration of the software can be daunting, requiring users to know where there critical data is stored. If users install new software they have to modify their backup configuration to now backup this new location. (not every piece of software saves its info to My Documents) In my experience, users do not make a point of maintaining their backup software configuration, so over time, the configuration becomes "stale" and less effective. Time Machine solves all these problems by simply backing up everything on the users computer.

The only problem that I have with Time Machine is that it will utilize a secondary hard drive or secondary partition to store the backup information. I can only assume that this hard drive or partition will need to be of comparable size to the primary drive or partition that is being backed up. I would even imagine that this drive would need to be much larger if you are going to maintain several months or years worth of data? I am sure that Time Machine will utilize some type of compression technology to store the data; however, hard drives are capable of filling up eventually, no matter how large they are. If Time Machine backs up all the information that is on my G5 and never purges it, then the backup drive will need to be large, very large. Even with this restriction, I will use the Time Machine software exclusively on my G5 desktop for all my backup needs. Unfortunately, the need of a second hard drive or second partition is the major reason that I will NOT use Time Machine to handle the backups for my 17" PowerBook.

My PowerBook is where I keep stuff, lots of stuff. This laptop is my primary tool that I use onsite at my customer's offices. As a result, I have tons of stuff on my laptop and I am constantly transferring back and forth to my G5 desktop. The main reason I purchased the G5 desktop was because I could not store all the data on the relatively small (80GB) hard drive of the PowerBook. The thought of having a dedicated partition just for Time Machine on the PowerBook is not good. I can easily envision data, that I consider temporary in nature, could burn up valuable space in the backup partition. I am sure that there will be some configuration options within Time Machine that would allow me to exclude certain directories from the backup; however, I am just not comfortable with devoting a large portion of my PowerBook's hard drive to Time Machine's exclusive use. Lets face it, laptop hard drives are just to small for my needs and I will not use any software that will dramatically reduce this capacity. I am going to stick with my existing online backup solution which is bullet proof and does everything I need for a highly mobile laptop.

Silent PC's

I have been building computers for many years. It started back in the 1980's when I would take an IBM XT or AT machine and add performance enhancements or expansion hardware. I used to find it challenging to build high-performance workstations that were reliable. In the past few years I have stepped up the challenge to build PC's that are silent.

Making a PC run very quietly is a significant challenge. My first attempts were successful , but after a few weeks I began to have serious stability problems. You might be wondering why I am writing about silent PC's in the Data Backup and Recovery blog. Let me explain; the parts of the computers that make the most noise are the fans. That includes the CPU cooling fan, graphics card cooling fan, and power supply. Slowing those fans down or eliminating them will certainly make your computer quieter. You can also a quieten a computer by adding acoustic insulation inside the case. All of this leads to reduced airflow inside the case and hotter running components. Too much heat and the components will fail, sometimes temporary thermal shutdowns, sometimes actual damage occurs. Modern CPU's absolutely need cooling. Newer and faster Intel CPU's will shutdown within a few seconds without a properly installed heat sync. According to Toms Hardware, AMD CPUs will physically burn themselves up and irreparably damage the motherboard if the heat sync is not properly installed. When a computer system is not properly cooled it will be unstable at best, but even worse components can suffer an untimely death.

Any computer that is prone to locking up or spontaneously rebooting is also prone to data losses. Data integrity problems can occur on your hard disk as a result of sudden shutdowns. I will spare you the details of how that happens, but you should be aware that any sudden loss of power or ungraceful shutdown has the potential to corrupt data. In addition to the aggravation of an unstable system, there is a much bigger problem often looming. Hard disk drives require cooling also, when hard drives run at temperatures above the manufacturers tolerances, the data is subject to corruption and worse, the drive can completely fail.

I once experienced several untimely hard drive failures in the same machine before I discovered that my drives were not being adequately cooled. I had three hard drives mounted in a very tight area near the top of the case. I had also placed acoustic insulation around the drives to eliminate the drive noise. There was very little airflow around these drives. After I had three hard drive failures of fairly new models from different manufacturers I knew something was causing the failures other than natural wear and tear. I used a tool called Dtemp, which displays the temperature of your hard drives in the system tray area of Windows XP. I found that my drives were typically operating at 50C - 70C and sometimes exceeding 70C. I modified the case and added a 120MM fan at the top of the case to pull cool air across the drives. The larger fan pulls a higher volume of air at a lower speed than a smaller fan running faster, and with much less noise. For the past two years my drives have been running at between 26C and 38C. I have not had even a single hard drive failure since then.

You may have read that Google recently performed a study that shows that temperature may not be as big a factor in hard drive failures as once believed. Don't interpret this study to mean that you shouldn't be concerned about drive temperatures. Google's drives are all mounted in servers at professionally managed data centers. Those servers are built for reliability, which includes proper airflow. I think it is safer to say that temperature may not be a factor as long as it is within certain limits. I can assure you that I have had repeated experiences with hot running drives failing in less than one year, and I will never make that mistake again.

So, if you don't build your own computers then why should you be concerned? Many of the store bought computers designed for desktop usage are built to be as quiet as possible. The manufacturers are usually aware of potential heat problems and engineer their machines to keep the heat within limits. Problems occur later when you take the computer home and place in a tight spot under your desk with limited airflow. Or, when dust clogs the air vents or heat syncs. You should always make sure that your computer is positioned so that airflow is unobstructed on all sides of the computer where the case is vented. I also recommend that you occasionally unplug your computer, open the case, and carefully vacuum and clean out the dust.

Regardless of what you do to maintain your computer, you are only delaying the inevitable. Components will eventually fail. Hard drives are the most likely to fail because of the moving parts. You really don't know when a component might fail that will cause data-loss. If you have built your own computer and didn't properly design a cooling system, then your data may be even more at risk. Even if you bought a brand-name computer, your data is still at risk of loss for a variety of reasons. The only prudent thing to do is make backup copies of your data on a frequent basis.