There are No Good Excuses for Not Backing Up Your Computer

For most people, backing up their computer is not on top of their priority list for any given day. We just have too many things to do, places to go, people to call, or whatever else we do for work, fun or pleasure. Those letters, spreadsheets, digital photos, and mp3's aren't going anywhere. Right? They can wait another day or two, or three...

Actually those computer files are going to go somewhere and it can happen on any day or night. And in most cases, when they are gone, they are gone forever. I don't think there is anything I can say here to make the ignorant believe what I am saying. They will learn the hard way when their data is lost. If they are lucky, it will happen to a close friend or relative who will share their pain.

Letting everything else take priority over backing up data is the real problem. Up until a few years ago, backing up data was actually a time-consuming process, and it could be fairly expensive as well. Things are different now. There are some very good online backup services available that completely remove the time and effort required to backup computer files. Other than an initial setup, which is usually just a few minutes, everything else is completely automatic. You don't have to do anything to backup up your computer again. It gets backed up while you sleep, or while you work, but you never have to touch it or think much about it. With online backup you can prioritize everything ahead of backing up your data; you do don't have to do anything on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to protect your data.

Cost can't be an excuse either. There are several free services with limited capabilities and there are also some very good providers at reasonable costs. In fact, there are no good excuses for not backing up your data. All of the excuses you may have had in the past are gone.
Online backup is less costly, very reliable, very secure, and takes almost none of your time.

For help in selecting an online backup service provider, see SSL is Not Enough Security for Online Backup or Backup Laptop and Mobile Computers. You can also find some good information here http://www.BackupReview.info.

Carbonite Does Not Backup All Files

Here is an interesting posting by Tom Kirkham about Carbonite online backup. It appears that Carbonite automatically skips backing up some files. After looking over the list that Tom published, I don't necessarily think this is bad. However, if you use Carbonite, you may not be backing up some important files and you may not be aware of this. Most of the folders that are skipped contain system files and stuff that you usually would not want to backup and should probably not restore.

I am much more concerned about the file extensions that are automatically skipped. Some of these potentially contain valuable data that you may want backed up. I know I have many files of those types that I would not want to lose. See the full list here: "Files Carbonite Will Not Backup".

Data Backup: 4 Critical Mistakes

Most of us realize that our computer files are vulnerable to permanent loss due to a number of different causes. Over the last several months I have noticed that more people are backing up their files in one way or another. I am not exactly sure of the cause, but I hope the trend continues. I suspect a combination of factors is driving awareness of the need to backup data. As the months and years pass, more people own computers and they store more data and more important data on them. There is a large segment of the population who grew up in a non-computer age and now have computers, and a lot of these people don't pay much attention to backing up data until they they lose their data. Once someone has lost their hard-drive or important data, they gain a keen understanding of the need to backup their computers. And furthermore, people who have lost data tend to tell their friends and families about their experience and advise them to make backup copies of their data as well. While more people join the ranks of those of us who backup our data, critical mistakes are being made that can seriously affect their ability to recover from losses of data.

There is also a lot of bad advice being posted in various blogs and forums on the Internet. Comments such as, "just get a second hard drive and copy your files to it", or "online backup is risky", tend to lead people in the wrong direction. These comments generally come from people who have no expertise, but they have learned just enough to be dangerous. By the way, this is not just a problem for people looking for information about backing up their computers, you can get plenty of bad information from the Internet on just about any subject. Even with the bad advice, any backup is better than no backup.

Although backing up data is simple concept on the surface, a comprehensive plan to assess risk and mitigate the cost of various events and scenarios can be a complex exercise. I don't expect every small business and home computer owner to have a comprehensive disaster recover plan, but avoiding a few simple mistakes can dramatically increase your chances of being able to recover from most losses within a reasonable amount of time.

• One reason for backing up computer files is to protect against a catastrophic failure of the hard drive or possibly theft or loss of the entire computer. These are certainly good reasons to backup the data on any computer, but there are other common occurrences that result in data loss. Accidental deletion of files, errant updates, or even corruption of the data that is stored on the a hard disk drive can be more common than a total loss of the disk drive or computer. In addition, we are all aware that viruses and other forms of malicious code can delete and replace files without our knowledge. In fact, it is very likely any of these causes of data loss can occur with no immediate effects. Days or weeks can pass before you know that a file is missing or corrupt. I call these latent data losses, see Online Backup Services and Data Retention for more on this subject. If you backup your computer system to a portable hard drive and copy over existing older files, then your backup data is unlikely to be helpful in recovering from a loss that you weren't aware of before your last backup. Avoid this costly mistake by using a backup system that allows you to keep a number of historical backups so that you can recover from common losses involving corruption, deletion, and malicious code. See Backup Retention for more information.



• While most people think of a backup as a way to protect against computer failures, there is another very important consideration. What if your home or office is destroyed by fire, vandalism, natural disaster or even terrorism? Chances are that your backup data will be affected by the same event unless you have a copy stored in a safe offiste location. Even a burglary or other theft can render your backup data useless if the theves take your portable hard drive, safe, or other storage. When these types of events occur, your offsite backup data may be your only hope of getting a major part of your life and your business back on track. Even though these events are not as common as hard drive failures, viruses and others, the effects can be much more devastating. Disasters do occur and the people who are prepared recover quickly, others suffer catastrophic setbacks and never fully recover. Don't assume that you will never be affected by a disaster. Failure to keep off site backup copies of your data could be a fatal mistake to small businesses and could cause serious complications for home users in the event of a disaster. Take a little extra time and care to store recent copies of your backup data in a secure off-site location.



• Keep in mind that the primary reason that you are backing up your data is so that you can restore it in the event of a loss. Many years ago I worked for Computer Associates International, we were the leading provider of systems management software for large, medium, and small computer systems. I am well aware of the complexities of backup software, how it works, and some issues that can make it not work. No software or hardware manufacturer can absolutely guarantee that a product will work flawlessly on your computer. Most do their best to test for all likely combinations of hardware, software, and usage scenarios that may affect the use of their products. Just because your backup system can backup your computer without errors, doesn't necessarily mean that it can restore data as you would expect. First of all, you may find that the restore functionality is not as easy to use as you thought, or there may be some idiosyncrasies that you aren't aware of until you try it. You don't want to be fumbling around trying to figure out how to get your files restored when you are reeling from a loss. I recently read a posting from a Mozy online backup user who said it took a couple of days for his data to be ready to restore after he initiated the process. That might cause me to panic a bit, if I hadn't already tested and knew what to expect. Speaking of Mozy users; I have also seen a number of complaints posted about the inability to successfully restore any data. In their defense most of these complaints were about a beta Mac product. This problem is not necessarily unique to Mozy. It could happen with any backup system, in fact is probably more likely to be a problem with tapes or other removable media. The best way to ensure that your data can be restored from your backup system is to test it. You should periodically restore some files to make sure the system works as expected and you know how to use it to restore data in an emergency.



• One of the more serious and common mistakes that are made by small business and home computer owners is missing backups. Missed backups come in many flavors. There are the backups missed because someone forgot to do it. And there are backups that are missed because of technical or procedural problems. Regardless of the reason backups were missed, the result is the same, important data is vulnerable to permanent and irrecoverable loss. I have witnesses on several occasions where an automated backup system was supposed to be running backup jobs daily, but for various reasons the backups were not actually running or they were failing. Furthermore, it is not usually just one backup that is missed. When backup jobs and backup procedures are not carefully checked and monitored, many days and weeks can pass with no valid backups being made. These problems often go undiscovered until there is data loss. Don't wait until you need to restore data to find out that your backup jobs have not been successful. Monitor your backup jobs as diligently as you monitor the gas gauge in your car.

There is a high probability that you will need to recover from a data loss event within in the next couple of years. Avoiding the 4 critical mistakes discussed in this article will go a long way towards increasing your chances of making a full and painless recovery.

When You Should Not Use an Online Backup Service

While online backup services are gaining in popularity, there are some situations where it is best to avoid them.

If you have large amounts of data that changes frequently, then online backup may not be a practical solution for you. Bandwidth available for the backup process determines how much data can practically be backed up within a given backup window. If you have a T1 Internet connection and a 12 hour backup window per day, then you are limited to backing up about 6GB per day. If your connection is DSL or Cable Modem, then you probably have much less bandwidth available for backing up data because your upstream connection speed is usually significantly slower than your downstream connection speed (the good news is that you will be able to restore much faster).


In the event of a catastrophic loss of all of your computer data, how much would it cost if you were down for a few days? There are many businesses that could tolerate this quite well; perhaps some orders would be shipped late, some payments might be delayed, or maybe manual procedures could be used to continue operation until the computers were restored. Other businesses could lose significant amounts of money and customers if they were unable to process for even a few hours. And their reputation could be irreparably damaged. Think of what would happen if an online auction site was down for a few days. If your business would suffer significant irrecoverable damage from a failure that last more than a day, then you may want to consider a disaster recover plan that includes an entire hot backup site, not just backup data. For example; Orasi Software, Inc., provides a hosted customer feedback solution called IdeaScope. In the event that the entire Orasi data center becomes inoperable, they have the equipment, connectivity and data available to run the entire IdeaScope system from an alternate site. Other companies take this to the next level by using replication and automatic failover technology to switch traffic to an alternate site within seconds of a failure in the primary site. These are clearly situations where online backup cannot provide the speed of recovery needed.


There are still a lot of people who are concerned about the security of online backup. Actually, this is not a real problem if you choose an online backup service provider carefully. Data backed up to a secure online backup service, is actually just as secure, if not more secure, than data backed up to tapes and transported to off-site facilities. You want to make sure that the online backup service provider stores your data encrypted with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and uses an encryption key that is only known by you. It is extremely important that the data is encrypted with an encryption key on your computers, that is never sent to, or known by, the backup service provider. If the online backup service provider provides this level of security for your data, then your data is as safe as it can possibly be anywhere, including your own tape vault. Employees at the data center, nor hackers, nor anyone else, have any way to get to the contents of your backup files. See SSL is Not Enough Security for Online Backup for more on this subject and some online backup services that have been verified to provide this level of security. On the other hand, never, ever, use an online backup service that falls short of this level of security because there are countless ways that your data could be exposed to the world.

While online backup services are not the best choice for all situations, they are a great choice for most small business and home computers. Even in situations where a hot backup site is needed, good online backup services offer valuable backup capabilities for retaining historical data in an off-site location. But all online backup services are not the same. Many of them don't provide the kind of security that is absolutely necessary for most business or personal data. And the cheap and free services fall short when it comes to control over your backup data and retention. Be careful and select a data backup service that provides proper security and control over retention of older versions of files, a robust and secure online backup service is worth a few extra bucks per month.

Online Backup Services and Data Retention

The primary reason that most people backup their data is to protect against a catastrophic loss such as a hard disk failure. There are some other important reasons for backing up data that are just as critical. A well thought-out data backup strategy can protect against losses other than catastrophic or sudden losses. There are several factors that determine the usefulness of backup data to recover from various losses. Frequency of backup, storage location, type of backup (full, incremental, or differential), and retention policies are all relevant factors when backup data is needed to recover from a loss.

An entire class of data loss involves data corruption, errant modifications, and deletions that aren't detected immediately. I call these latent data losses because there is a latency between the time the data was lost and the time the loss becomes known. Note, the term "data loss" refers to any loss or undesired modification of data. Latent data losses are usually not caused by a hardware failure. Some common causes are; human error, malicious code, or errant processing. These losses can be especially insidious because the problems can infect the data backup systems as well as the primary data. Suppose an accounting file is mistakenly deleted and the file is not discovered missing until the end of the quarter. Several daily backups may have run since the file was deleted. The current backup media does not contain the missing file, nor do any of the recent backups. There are numerous other events that can corrupt or destroy data that go undetected for days, weeks or months.

Public companies that operate in the United States are compelled by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to retain certain data for periods of 5 to 7 years. While failure to comply carries stiff penalties, most companies with competent management choose to retain data for more direct business reasons. The ability to access historical backup data is an important safety-net, offering macro-scale "undo" and "redo" capabilities for business processes. Even small businesses and individuals can benefit from the ability to undo a mistake that was made days or weeks earlier.

Online backup and disk-based backup systems have some distinct advantages over traditional removable media type backups when it comes to backup data retention. Online backup systems allow the flexibility to retain individual files rather than entire media sets. Most disk-based systems, including online backup, economize storage space by eliminating duplication of backup data. Once a file has been backed up, there is no need to make another exact copy of the same file for retention purposes as is often the case with tapes and other removable storage. There are also many situations where removable media storage will require that thousands of files are retained unnecessarily because a few files on the media need to be retained. Because of the high cost of tape media, many companies unnecessarily limit their backup data retention to control the cost of backup media.

I highly recommend using an online backup service, but many of the services don't provide any meaningful control over the retention of backup data. The free and cheap services restrict retention of deleted files and older versions of files to very short time periods, if any at all. Online backup services that don't allow control over retention only offer protection from the most basic data losses and offer no protection from latent data loss. By trying to save a few bucks by using the cheapest online backup service, you are seriously reducing the value of backing up your files. A number of good online backup services are relatively inexpensive and provide excellent protection from all types of data loss. A good professional online backup service will allow you to specify your own retention policies that meet your actual needs rather than forcing a retention policy on you that meets the needs of the online backup service provider.

Offsite Backup is an Important Part of Data Security

Most people think of firewalls and access controls when they think of data security. Virus protection, data encryption, and password security are some of the components of data security strategies. Spam and spyware detection has also become important in efforts to protect data at home and in corporate networks. Typical home users and business people may not have explicitly designed and implemented a data security strategy, but they are usually aware of the obvious threats. Regardless of whether a formal data security plan has been created or not, the objective should include protecting data from any eventual loss or exposure.

Threats to your data do not always involve intruders, unauthorized access, or malicious code. Depending on your operation and procedures, the biggest threats may be related to human error. Accidental deletion or errant updates can be just as damaging as a virus or hacker. A software update or configuration change may also have unexpected consequences to data. There are countless other ways that data can be lost or corrupted. The cost and consequences of lost data is the same regardless whether it is caused by a virus, hacker, internal threat, mistake or other cause.

One must also consider that new threats surface everyday. Virus protection software can't guarantee that every virus will be detected before damage is done. Firewalls block most unauthorized access from the outside, but do little to stop malicious code that is attached to an email or downloaded from a website.

The last safety net for your data is your backup. Furthermore, your offsite backups are your only protection against certain threats that may data at your primary location unavailable. For example; stolen equipment may include your backup hardware and data that was located in your home or place of business. Retention of backup data is also an important part of the defense. It is not uncommon for a problem to go undetected for days or weeks, meaning that your backups also have the same problem. The ability to restore data from retained backups can be a lifesaver in certain situations. Besides the obvious need for a data backup system to protect against hardware failures, the backup data is also an important defense against security threats.

Carbon Credits for Online Backup

In a previous life I was the IT director at a medium sized company. We did the traditional tape backups and we paid an offsite storage company to pick up a box of tapes every morning and transport them to a secure vault in a remote location. At one point the CFO questioned me about why were spending $750 per month for this offsite vaulting service. We really didn't have a good alternative. Anything that involved an employee taking tapes to a bank safe-deposit box, or to their home, was just too unreliable and we weren't sure we could retrieve the tapes if an emergency occurred overnight or on a weekend or holiday. Some years later, online backup became a practical alternative and we are saving a ton of money on offsite vaulting, tape backup hardware, software and media. You have probably noticed from my postings that I am a big proponent of online backup. This comes from many years of experience with different backup solutions and strategies at various companies. I realize that online backup is not the solution for every situation, but it sure can save tons of money and frustration when done correctly. Speaking of tons, I just stumbled across a website that sells carbon credits. They help you figure out how many tons of CO2 your car is producing and then you can buy their carbon credits. The money you pay for the carbon credits is supposed to be used to fund clean energy projects. Heck, I think online backup qualifies as much as any windmill does.

I will not mention this website by name because I don't know if it is legitimate or not. It may just be an operation that is set up to get your money. I heard Al Gore even owns one of these operations. The website asked me what kind of car I own and how many miles per year I drive. I provided the info and and it informed me that my car emits 9,600 lbs of CO2 each year. Furthermore, I need to by a $49.95 carbon pass to offset the CO2 that my car emits. Oh yeah, they also charge shipping and handling for the carbon pass. My first impression was; Wow! my car emits 9600 lbs of something that I never see. OK, let's try to figure this out. I fill my car with gas about every 2 weeks, my tank holds 18 gallons. In one year, I fill-up about 24 times. If it were dead empty every time, then I would have put about 432 gallons of gasoline into my car every year. A quick check and I find out that gasoline weighs about 6.5 lbs per gallon. So I burn about 2808 lbs of gasoline per year and my car emits 9,600 lbs of CO2. I find that hard to believe, but I am not an expert, and I have no idea how to capture some CO2 from my exhaust pipe and get it on scale to measure this.

Regardless of how much CO2 my car uses, I have to believe those trucks that come and pick up the backup tapes and take them to the secure offsite storage vault are emitting way more CO2 than my little car. Lets say the offsite vaulting company sent a guy on bicycle to pick up the tapes. The bicycle itself emits no CO2, but the rider my fart every once in a while, especially if he stops at Taco Bell for lunch. I think that offsite vaulting company deserves some of that "carbon offset" money for using clean energy instead of a truck. Online backup services transport your data without a truck, a bicycle or a rider. The copper and fiber that transports the data emits no CO2. So online backup services should get piece of this carbon offset action!