Bright Ideas # 60 – How to save yourself from computer hell  

Most weeks I talk about something you can do to help grow your business. Today I want to talk about something you can do to keep from hurting your business in the future (just as important, eh?).

You see, I was visiting my family in Atlanta a couple of months ago when I was down there for the big Dan Kennedy Info Summit. And my father was really upset.

Seems he had just had an experience we all dread. I’ll call it Dr. Newman’s (that’s my dad) Big Computer Crash of ’06. Perhaps you’ve been there?

He lost everything on his hard drive for about a week. Though luckily, some IT folks were eventually able to retrieve the file for his upcoming presentation.

Of course, my sister and I—who both helped my dad install new practice management software back when he still had his vet clinic—were shocked.

We immediately asked “Don’t you have a backup?”

And my father, bless his soul, stared back us like a dear in the headlights before mumbling “Backup?? Nobody ever told me I needed a backup.”

We thought this was a bit odd given that we used to run a backup every single night at the clinic. But the mind is an odd thing, and clearly in my Dad’s mind no connection was made.

Then I read a statistic that says only about 25% of all computer users have any kind of backup system.

How can this be?

Are these people crazy?!

Clearly they haven’t been through the hell that is loosing all your files.

Soon I started thinking back to the bookkeeper whose computer crash had wiped out my files. And the graphic designer who was unable to deliver on time because she had a crash and lost everything she was working on.

It’s stressful enough losing all the files on your personal computer. But in my book there is simply no excuse for not backing up a business computer.

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What do you need to safely back up your system?
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I’ll be the first to admit I am not an IT whiz. But the memory of loosing a 25-page term paper in college is still fresh in my mind even after 12 years. So I’ve always made it a practice to back up my computer one way or another.

Here’s what I have learned…

First, you only want to do an external back up.

That means you don’t just want to back up to the second, internal hard drive in your computer (like the D drive in My Computer). Because if your machine crashes, you probably won’t be able to access that info either.

This leaves two choices—external, on-site back up and off-site back up.

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On-site Backups
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I started out with the simplest of on-site systems: burning everything to CD. This worked great until I had to fill three CDs to get everything backed up. Then it became a bit of a pain.

So I invested about $125 in an external hard drive. This little number plugs right in to my USB port. Then I just open up a nifty piece of freeware I’ve downloaded that goes through my files and copies over any that are new or changed. I even set it to back up my networked laptop at the same time—which was a huge relief when my old laptop was stolen last year.

Now if my main computer crashes, I just plug the drive into my laptop and I’m good to go. Sure, floods, fire or theft could affect my external drive. But it’s certainly come in handy more than once.

I’ve also heard of people backing up to a USB pen drive they store in a sealed glass jar. Not a bad way to go if you don’t have too many files.

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Off-site Backups
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A number of on-line companies offer virtual back up starting at around a measly $10 month. Personally, I have this as well.

Why? Because most of the Internet backup systems are set to automatically save your files periodically—so you don’t even have to think about it. Plus, in the event of a flood or fire, your files are still safe.

I also discovered another benefit of virtual backup just recently…

A few weeks ago Seattle was hit by one of the worst windstorms in history. Six days after the fact some of my clients still didn’t have power.

Since I have a laptop, I just headed over to a downtown coffee shop that had electricity to get some work done. But in order to access most of my files, I had to schlep around my external drive.

Now, thanks to my virtual backup system, no matter where I am I can hop on the Internet and access every file on my office computer. Given that I love to travel, and have a few “working” ski trips planned for this year, the small investment seems worth it just for that convenience.

The bottom line is, if you run a business (and even if you don’t) you need to back-up your files. Computers crash or get stolen. Floods and fires happen. Be prepared.

I promise, having a good back-up system in place costs a lot less than dealing with the alternative.

You can find a terrific review of online services by PC magazine at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,121970-page,1/article.html

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