If you've been working on a pc for several years, odds are very good that you have been unlucky enough to be a target to a computer virus or a corrupt hard disk drive You possibly wound up sacrificing a lot of data and months and months (or years and years?) of hard work That is why, making backups of your computer data is vital.
The ideal idea is to invest in a portable hard disk to enable you to store the data on an unit that is not linked to your laptop or computer. If your laptop or computer is ruined to such an extent that all the hard disks are infected or affected, having your information on a separate drive on the computer will be completely useless External hard disks are getting to be more and more affordable and you can purchase hard disks with more than enough space for inexpensive prices.
How frequently should you make backups? That will depend totally on the nature of your business. If you are using your laptop or computer for accounting processes and generally end your bookkeeping processes at the end of each month, a monthly backup would be a good option Many accounting packages give you the option to make a backup every time you close the program. If you decide to do daily backups on your machine, remember to every now and then do an external back-up (on an external drive) too However, if you carry out data capturing for 8 hours a day each day, you should look at weekly or maybe daily backups. Consider having to redo just a week's work - that's an average of 40 hours you will probably have to fit in after hours and over weekends just to try and catch up again.
Most people agree that their emails are the most essential data on their machines and thus regular email backups are important Backing up your mail is really not complicated Based on the email program that you employ there will be different steps to follow, but typically you need to export your emails (this includes all your emails, from your inbox to your sent items and your drafts) to a personal folder. If required, you can then just import your emails on a new laptop or computer or as soon as your virus infected laptop or computer has been prepared.
Other documents that would require backups will typically include the "My Documents" folder where many people save their crucial documents. These records might include quotes, supplier correspondence, company policies, letterheads and art work, just to point out a few...
Luckily there are a variety of software programs that can be purchased that will help to recover your lost or damaged files. Unfortunately not all of these programs are equally efficient and chances of recovering 100% of your data are very slim. If the need occurs to try and recover your data, rather take your computer or laptop to a reputable file recovery company to help.
Making backups should form part of your daily, weekly or monthly scheduled tasks, depending on the nature of your business.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlelog.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites