Top 7 Reasons You Should Back Up Your Data Online!

How much is your data worth to you? In this modern electronic-age we rely more than ever on our computers to supply us with the information we need. Chances are every piece of data you might ever rely on to make an important decision has been reduced to a digital format and resides somewhere on your computer's hard drive. Improved functionality and productivity are the benefits, however, on the flipside, one wrong click, one nasty virus, one untimely power surge or unhappy employee and that data is gone forever!

Online backups (also called offsite or remote backups) are a great solution for almost any small business or individual computer user.

1. The Statistics say you should.

a. Among the companies that experience data loss, 50% never re-open and 90% are out of business within two years.

b. 20MB of accounting data takes 21 days and costs $19,000 to reproduce.

c. Causes of data loss – 42% Hardware Failure, 30% Human Error, 13% Software Corruption, 7% Computer Viruses, 5% Theft.

2. Easy. Online backups are a simple way to protect your data. Online backup services provide the software application, server space and customer service in one turnkey solution. There are no additional software applications or equipment specifications to learn. The installation and set-up is quick and painless. Your backups can be scheduled to run automatically at any time you desire. There is no media, tapes or hardware to deal with.

3. Security. Believe it or not, online backups are generally more secure than in-house backup solutions. If your computers or data are affected by natural disaster, power failure/surges, viruses, vandalism, theft, human error, etc., your in-house backup will suffer the same consequences. Another unfortunate thing about tape backups is that they are not generally encrypted, and not very secure. Almost anyone can read them and gain access to your clients, sales, prospects, notes, billing records, payroll, tax info, and anything else on your computer.

Online backups encrypt (up to 448-bit) your data before transferring it to the remote server. Most backup servers are housed in secure locations with security guards, generators and the latest state-of-the-art security technology.

4. Inexpensive. Online backups give you more “bang for the buck.” Setting up a traditional data protection plan requires software, hardware, media and the man-hours necessary to set-up and protect your data on a daily basis. Online backups combine all of these functions in one easy service for a low monthly or annual fee.

The cost? If you or your staff spends as little as 10 minutes per day running a tape backup or burning a CD, figure just the cost of labor at about $100 per month. Add on top of that, the cost of CDs, or tapes and you're spending 4 or 5 times the cost of the average online backup fee, which requires “no time” daily once your initial setup is done. You can start an online backup account for as little at $5 - $15 per month.

5. Quick File Restores. In the event you need to restore your lost data, you simply select the applicable files or volumes and with a click of the mouse all of your data is transferred to its original location. Your data is ALWAYS available 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. You can recover a single file or all of your files in a matter of minutes.

6. Peace of Mind. Knowing that your data is safe, secure and always available is enough reason to check out an online backup solution.

7. The Alternatives. You can’t afford the alternatives! Computer users spend millions of dollars annually to recover lost data. The data recovery industry is HUGE and continues to grow. Assuming that your data is even recoverable - expect it to be an expensive and time consuming ordeal. Obviously, it is best to be prepared in the first place.

by Sol Spencer

About the Author

Sol Spencer helps computer users have the peace of mind that only a secure, online backup can provide. With Safe Harbor Data, you can restore your entire computer with one download! Amazingly affordable and effective, Safe Harbor protects your data with state-of-the-art encryption. Get the peace of mind that comes with secure, online backup today for only pennies each day. http://www.safeharbordata.com

You Lost Your Data... Don't Panic!

Inability to access your data stored on the data storage device could be caused by many reasons, from those that are easy to fix to those which are completely impossible to fix. If the damage is irreversible then data loss will occur. The causes of the failure of your hard drive or CD-ROM drive could vary from a bad connection due to a loose wire (which is easily recoverable) to damage to the media itself, which could still be recoverable in many cases.

As in the medical profession, the first principle of data recovery is: "do not harm".

If you are facing a data loss situation, what not to do is very important!

• Do not power up a device that has obvious physical damage.
  

• Do not power up a device that has shown symptoms of physical failure. For example, disks that make "obvious mechanical fault noises" such as ticking or grinding, should not be repeatedly powered on and tested as it just makes them worse.
  

• Activate the write-protect switch or tab on any problem removable media such as tape cartridges and floppies. (Many good backups are overwritten during a crisis.)
  

• Do not use free software. This is very important. Free data recovery software can be extremely dangerous and ruin your chances for a successful data recovery. Many companies offer free data recovery software -- also called Do-It-Yourself (DIY) data recovery software -- available for download on their website.
  

Even the best programs only work in very specific situations. While these free tools that are available may help, they usually only help if you are encountering one of a very few specific data loss situations.

Some programs may cause further or permanent data loss. While these programs are provided with good intention, even when carefully used these utilities may cause recoverable data to be permanently lost and may cause the loss of additional data.

Anyway, there is something you CAN do; if you are having data access problems and your media has no symptoms of physical failure or damage, try and check some obvious issues before deciding if you need data recovery:

• Are the power and disk cables properly connected?
  

• Is configuration or disk information correct?
  

• Try the defective unit with a different adapter/controller interface or on a different computer.
  

• Is there an experienced technician at a local store or the company help desk that you can consult, if these steps are beyond your capabilities? (Make sure whoever is in contact with your data loss situation is fully aware that they should do nothing during their troubleshooting that will risk hurting your data.)
  

Doesn’t work? Don’t panic; if the damage occurred to the drive's electronics, it most likely could be fixed. If the damage occurred to the, for example, system areas of the disk, leaving the data zone intact, those data could be theoretically, and (in some cases) practically, recovered by a professional.

Look on the Net for data recovery companies, ask them questions, explain them your situation. In most cases they will be able to understand your problem and fix it for a fair price.

by: Emanuele Allenti

About The Author Emanuele Allenti is the owner of http://www.hard-disk-data-backup-recovery.com - a website containing tips and useful information written by experts for those interested in backup and data recovery

What is data recovery?

Data recovery is the retrieval of inaccessible or contaminated data from media that has been damaged in some way. Data recovery is being increasingly used and is an important process nowadays.

There has been a lot of progress in increasing the memory capacity of data storage devices. Therefore data loss from any one incident also tends to be very high. The relevance of lost data can vary greatly. Maybe you have had the experience of storing a homework assignment on a floppy disk only to have it missing on the day the assignment in due.

Consider the fact that a large amount of businesses nowadays have vital organizational related data stored on machines. Also hospitals store data on patients on computers. Large amounts of websites nowadays use databases technology to enhance their websites and make them more dynamic. Php and MySql use has been on the rise on the Internet. Database failure is not uncommon and so it is not a fail proof method of storing information.

Companies have high reliance on computer technology to write and store data relevant to their business operations. Thus the data being stored can have a great deal of impact on personal lives and operations of companies.

There can be several causes of data loss.

Data loss can occur from unexpected incidences including national tragedies such as floods and earthquakes.

Often power failure can cause loss of data from hard drives. Sudden power surges can also cause a lot of damage to a computer’s hard drive.

Accidentally deleting a file or formatting a hard drive or floppy disk is a common reason for data loss.

If you have accidentally lost any important documents there are several steps you can take. Remember that if you have accidentally erased a file, it may not have vanished from your computer. It may have left an imprint in a different format on the computer’s hard drive or other storage devices. Recovering the data involves locating it and transforming it into human readable form.

Not all data may be recoverable.

You can either hire professional service to help you solve your problem or attempt a recovery on your own.

You can carry out data recovery operations on your own computer if you know what you are doing. There is data recovery software widely available that can assist you in the process.

Data recovery can become complicated if you overwrite on the storage device that has the lost data. Therefore if you do not know what you are doing, it is advisable to contact a professional service firm.

Data recovery professionals are experts in recovering data from all sorts of media and from a variety of damages done. There are many specialists out there who have years of experience in the IT field. The kind of data recovery operation to use will depend a great deal on the storage device and other variables such as the amount of damage done or the operation system used such as Macintosh, Windows or Linux.

There are some cases where it may be impossible to recover any data. However do not fret as the odds lie in your favor since a high percentage of data recovery operations are successful.

Preventing data loss

Of course the best way is to prevent data loss in the first place.

Data backup allows for restoring data if data loss occurs. Even ordinary pc users can set up their computer to carry out regularly scheduled backup operations. In the event of a hard drive crash or an unwise change in settings by an uninformed user, the restore tool can be used to retrieve deleted data or to restore the computer’s settings from an earlier time.

For the back up process to be useful it should involve several reliable backup systems and performing drills to make sure the data is being stored correctly. Additional protection methods from data loss include making sure that the hard drive is protected from damages from the external environment. This includes protection from sunlight and temperature extremes.

Also plugging in your pc into a surge protector rather than an ordinary outlet can give your computer a protection layer from electricity fluctuations. Keep your virus protection up to date. Also remember to keep your backup data separate from your computer.

Nevertheless a lot of companies will go through a disaster and experience data loss. The best thing to do is not to panic and also not to ignore the situation. The quicker you rectify the situation the better. Counting on data loss will help you be prepared for any such event.

by Andrew Malek

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.