Ok, stole that from a t-shirt I'm getting from the company we are partnered with for providing online backup, but it states it pretty clearly, I think.

All too often, sometimes multiple times a week, a customer walks in the door at TCG with a "crashed" computer.  The first thing we ask them to do is to define "crash", because you'd be surprised what that means to different people (but that's another article).  But back to the initial comment, all to often, customers come in with a "crashed" computer... and that "crash" is actually a failed or failing hard drive. 

We ask the customer what is critical data on the computer so if we DO get a chance to access data (sometimes for a very short period of time) we can snag it as quickly as possible without having to copy the entire contents of the drive.  We are not data recovery experts, however, and we don't have a "clean room" to take apart a hard drive for recovery as is needed in some cases, so if we can't get the drive to be recognized by the data recovery software we have, we're out of luck.  Too many times we've had clients in tears as we have to tell them that we cannot access their data and it is gone, or it will cost $400.00 plus to have a chance at getting their data back (data recovery is even ANOTHER article).

Now... backup.  No, do it NOW!!! you can't afford not to!  Back the F:\ up!  How? you may ask?

You need to keep a couple things in mind, most importantly when it comes to backup.

1.  You need a regular backup schedule.  Many times, people back up once a year or once every six months.  How many pictures did you take of the grandkids since the time you last backed up... if you didn't get them backed up, they could be gone!  Secondly, if we get out of a routine of doing something, guess what, it doesn't get done, right sis?

2.  Backups need to be in a different location than your computer.  I don't mean a different room in the house.  I mean a different location all together.  This is where a lot of people and even businesses fall short.  They back up religiously, but guess where their backup sits... right next to the computer!  This is better than nothing, but what happens in the case of a fire, a flood, a theft? Your backup is gone just as fast as your original!  Some say, I'll put it in my fireproof safe... again, better, but I'm a volunteer firefighter... sometimes we bring in heavy equipment to knock down a structure... guess how much that firesafe might hold up to against an excavator?  even if it does survive, the shock and external hard drive might sustain is enough to render it useless.  Why take the chance when there's a really easy, secure, 'set it and forget it' solution?

TCG is partners with two online backup companies currently.  Mozy.com and Gillware Data Services.  Mozy has a great service that is very scalable.  They even provide 2 Gigabytes of online backup for home users FREE! That's right, free!  No strings.  And, if you've got a big music library or lots of pictures, for $4.95 per month, Mozy Home will back up UNLIMITED data!  Check out Mozy.com for details on that.

If you are a business, Mozy provides MozyPro, which has some other features, can be installed on servers and has a few more capabilities you will/might need.  TCG sells MozyPro services and it is completely scalable based on need.  You can back up as little as 1 GB on up!

For large data storage backup needs, we will recommend Gillware Data Services, based right in Madison, WI, as for larger data backups, their prices can't be beat.  We sell their services for backup of 40+ GB of storage to business clients.  Contact us for details.

The beauty of these services are:

1.  Set it and forget it.  Once you have them configured, they will automatically back up modified files as often as every 2 hours as long as the computer is on and connected to a high speed internet connection.  No more worrying if the pictures you just downloaded to the pc have a backup copy.. it's automatically been done.

2.The back up is off site and secure!  The remote storage location is on redundant servers with power backed up by diesel generators.  Data is encrypted before it leaves your computer, so it looks like gobbledygook to anyone but the computer with your liscence key.  Data can be accessed by any computer on an internet connection, should you not be able to get back to your old computer because of whatever situation.

With Mozy providing 2 GB free backup, there's no reason to not start backing your files up today!  Just head on over to http://www.mozy.com and click to sign up.  If you use the home version, we'd be happy if you used referral code  U5C62G,  it is the referral code for our church, St. John's Lutheran in Almond, WI (http://www.stjohnsalmond.com).  It willl get our church about 256 MB extra free backup for the referral.

If you are a business, contact us!  We are happy to provide you with information on how to get started backing up right away and what the costs are.

Get to it!  ;)