A few thoughts on Backups

Backups are essential for home computing as much as in the office.  You can lose important personal files such as family photos and other items that are irreplaceable.  The best thing to do would be to make a complete backup of these files. That task is made simple if you use the "My Documents" folder or some other folder where all your important files are stored. Then you simply save that one folder and you have a clean safe backup of all your important data.

The problem today seems to be that we have so much that we save it can be hard to get it all on CD's or even on DVD's. MP3's, photos, and personal letters. Those who run a home business or do volunteer work on their home PC's do not want to lose vital business files either.

I recommend having an external hard drive for backups.  An external case with a big hard disk can be very useful for keeping all your important data safe and secure. USB2 & firewire are both very fast protocols and can have your files backed up relatively quickly.  An external case is easy to unplug from the PC or to just turn off, so you can protect the data on your backup drive by removing it or turning it off. It is also easily moved from one PC to another to make multiple backups all on one external drive.

It is important to make sure your files are clean before you back them up.  Use your Anti-Virus software to make sure everything is safe before backing up your files or you will perpetuate any problems you have on your PC. Make the backups regularly to have the most up to date version of files you want to keep.

For photos and MP3's, it's a good idea to burn them to a CD or DVD after making sure the files are clean. That way you have a permanent record of the files and you have less to worry about backing up. CD's can save about 700MB's of data, while a DVD burner can burn as high as 5GB's.  There is new burning technology that can hold even higher capacity, but it gets very expensive and a good external hard disk can be had for much less.

Go to our malware page to get some recommendations for free malware solutions to keep your data clean.

If you are interested in an external backup, you can contact us for harware recommendations.  I can even come help you set it up. You'll want a hard drive that is at least as big as all the drives you have in the PC's you want to backup combined.

When you are ready to see what BE Enterprises can offer you, contact us.