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| More on Backups:
If you are not backing up your data daily, you are risking it
needlessly. Don’t confuse data backup with time consuming
full
backups of your hard drive. Data backup should be habitual so you
won’t even have to think about it. If you take a moment to
create
a backup of every document as you go, you won’t even have to
worry about a schedule. If you prefer not to backup individual documents, then at least backup all your work at the end of each day. One day you will be glad that you took the time. I recently visited an office that had over six years of important data and no backup. What’s more, the owner had no interest in spending the time to backup this valuable data. Think about what it would take to recreate six years of data from paper records. That should be enough to scare you into backing up your data. So how do you backup your data in a quick and efficient manner. There many ways and certainly lots of opinions on the subject. As a strong advocate of backup, and with more than 10 years of valuable data, I have researched many of these methods. To me the easiest and most efficient backup method is daily data backup using a Zip drive. The Zip drive has several advantages. The media is removable for safe keeping. The media is durable and can hold at least 100 megabytes and as much as 750 megabytes. The Zip disk is just another drive that works just like your hard drive or CD so that your data is not only backed up but readily available on a file by file basis. It is easy to set up Zip disks for various aspects of your business. This makes for a great filing system. It is easy to duplicate the disks in order to keep a backup in a safe place outside of the home. Unlike online data backup methods, your data is always available at a speed almost as fast as your hard drive. Zip disks are extremely popular. There are more than 20 million Zip drives out there meaning that many people you exchange data with have a Zip drive. They are available in many models in 100 megabyte, 250 megabyte, and 750 megabyte capacity and with USB and Firewire connections. Plus you can get internal models. My favorite model is the new 750 megabyte USB model. It will connect easily to any computer with USB 2.0 connections. It reads and writes to either 750 megabyte or 250 megabyte Zip disks and will read old 100 megabyte Zip disks. So your old Zip disks can be used on this new model. It is also very light and only 1 inch thick. Remember that the USB models can only be used on computers that support USB. |
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