How do you backup your data?

A few years ago I traveled from Atlanta to California with a VP of Sales named David. David is the classic type-A personality; he trys to make use of every minute of the day. On the way back from California, I was watching him entering information into his PC from pages of notes he had taken from meetings during our visit to several high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. I inquired about this process of going to meetings, taking names, numbers, and notes. He had been doing this for about 2 years and had accumulated a wealth of data. My background is more technical than David's and my next question was about how often he backed up that laptop computer. He looked at me with a blank stare and didn't say anything. The silence was killing me; I then asked the next logical question, which was what would happen if all of that data was lost. David had a noticeably painful look on his face. The situation immediately became crystal clear to me; he had no backup and had never thought much about it. Apparently it was suddenly crystal clear to David as well.

For the past several months, I have been asking almost everyone I get into a conversation with about how they backup their computer files. I have found that very few people are actually backing their files up on a regular basis. And even fewer are storing their backups in a location different from their computer's location. If you are not a computer professional, don't feel bad, computer people are not much better than the average person when it comes to effectively backing up their data. I get a call from someone about once a month who has lost data and has no backup, mostly from people who should know better.

I will be posting to this blog to help educate people about the risks they are taking by not properly backing up their computer files. I will also provide information about the various solutions that are available to backup and recover files. In the interest of full disclosure; I am the owner of a backup and recovery service name Rhinoback, www.rhinoback.com. It is natural for me to show some bias toward that service because it was built based on my experience and understanding of the need. However, I am well aware that Rhinoback is not the solution for everyone. My primary interest is in raising the awareness of the need to properly backup your computer files. Your choice of backup solutions is completely up to you. Follow this blog and you will find valuable information that applies to you regardless of the solution you use.