Do you have a backup system in place? If so, have you actually tested the backup and made sure it restores correctly? Many people have backups, but they never ever tried a failure drill – this includes a number of small businesses. Well worth the cost, such drills will truly test what would happen if disaster struck….would you be able to get back on your feet?
Ask yourself this question:
If you are without your computer tomorrow how crippling will it be?
There are 2 scenarios here: a hardware one and a software one. Let’s address software first as that’s the bulk of computer problems. It usually consists of Windows going belly up due to viruses or a bad update.
Solving Software Issues without a Backup:
- As long as Windows is able to run we’ll be able to try Windows’ System Restore which will attempt to “roll back” your computer to a date where it previously worked. This is useful for any problems caused by updates to Windows, or drivers and programs that got installed / updated.
- If this doesn’t work or if Windows is busted to the point where you can’t start it up again, then a reinstall of the operating system would be necessary and this is accomplished by either using the factory restore discs / option if you bought a name brand computer or using the Windows setup disc if you have a white label / custom computer. BE CAREFUL THOUGH AS USING THE FACTORY RESTORE WILL WIPE OUT YOUR COMPUTER ENTIRELY INCLUDING YOUR DOCUMENTS. When this happens you’ll need to have some tech skills to access those files and save them before reinstalling Windows – or if you are using Windows 7, it’s smart enough to just automatically dump everything into a “windows.old” where you can find your documents later – but you’ll still need to redo all your settings which is a lot of work. After reinstalling Windows whether by disc or by factory restore, you’ll need to spend hours updating Windows, reinstalling your programs, updating your programs, and re-entering settings like email account information if you are using and email client like Outlook.
As you can see, this is a lot of work. And a lot of lost productivity….now what would happen if you had a valid “image type” backup? Image backups grab everything rather than just a backup of your documents.
Solving Software Issues with an Image Type Backup:
- You can try running System Restore from Windows first to see if that fixes it.
- If that doesn’t work, it’s time to restore the image. Restoring the image will bring you to the point you last backed up – the whole shebang. Of course if you edited your documents since the image backup, you’ll be losing whatever changes you made. If you can still access Windows, then it would be a great time to save your stuff to an external hard drive (HD) or flash drive before restoring your image. If Windows can’t load, then you’ll need to get your information another way such as plugging in your hard drive to another working computer first using a USB adapter kit.
Because you used an image type backup, everything is now back in place. Now, you can copy back your documents and run Windows update to make sure you have the latest patches. The great thing is that the time needed to get everything up and running is cut by 80-95% assuming you are doing regular backups every 1-2 weeks.
Now that we’ve seen how to repair software type problems, what would we do if the hardware failed?
Hardware Issues without a Backup:
- You’ll need to get your hardware fixed first. If the hard drive went bad, then chances are you will not be able to get back your documents. After getting your hardware repaired (or you got a new computer) you’re starting from scratch. I have seen people cry when this happened to them. I’ve also seen this scenario wipe out an entire businesses. If your HD goes bad, you may have a possibility for data recovery via a clean room (which costs $$$$). If something else broke like your motherboard, then your Windows is toasted – but at least you can still get to the information when the hard drive is hooked up to another computer.
Hardware Issues with an Image Type Backup:
- The best part about image backups is that even if the HD went south, you’ll be able to restore your system as soon as a replacement HD is installed. If your motherboard goes out, some programs like Acronis TrueImage with Universal Restore may be able to restore your system to different hardware. Note that I’ve seen times where it works as well as times where it doesn’t work. This is one of those scenarios where it would help if you tried a recovery drill to see if things will work as expected. If that fails, at least you can still access your documents. Of course, if an image restore fails, you’ll also need to go through the painful steps of a clean install with a Windows disc or a restoring of a factory image. If everything went well, then you are back in business with a downtime of only a couple of hours (depending on the amount of information to be restored).
There are many different methods and software to use to back stuff up. From Windows, Norton Ghost, Acronis TrueImage, to Radix Reload, it depends on the use of the computer to determine the best solution for each person. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be looking at Windows backup for Windows 7, Apple’s Time Machine, Acronis TrueImage 2011, and Radix Reload for the local image backups. We’ll also be looking at cloud based solutions such as SpiderOak, Mozy, SugarSync, and Carbonite. Until next time – safe computing!
Do you have a backup solution? What do you use and how often do you backup?
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