Internet Down Time (and other disasters) or A Few Great Ways to Backup Your Files

I received a letter in the mail last week that actually made me gasp – out loud!  It was from Cox, my internet service provider, saying that they were doing some upgrades in my neighborhood and that I may experience some internet down time this week.  I feel very fortunate to have had an extremely reliable internet connection at my home office the entire time I’ve lived here, and I’m not ready for that to change.

The letter filled me with fears of having to transfer all of my work to my laptop and schlep to a nearby coffee shop in order to skim their free internet.  How long would this “possible down time” last?  How many green teas (I’m not a coffee drinker) would I feel guilted into buying for my use of their wifi?  Will I need to forward my home office phone to my cell phone and try to hold professional conversations with the jet-engine level whirring of the espresso machine in the background?  How will my back react to a day (hopefully not longer) without my ergonomic chair?

Well, so far my internet access has remained functional (knock on wood), but I’m updating my disaster plan if things go awry at some point in the future, and that includes reviewing my data backup strategy.  We all know what happens to those who fail to plan…

Are you prepared for a disruption to your business?

Hard drives fail, computers die or get knocked over or kicked in frustration (has that never happened to you?  Ah, well…)   At any rate, here are 3 tips to help you prepare for a data calamity.

1. Have a backup strategy
2. Have another backup strategy
3. Think about having a third backup strategy

I currently backup my main desktop computer in the following ways:

• External hard drive.  I have a 2 terabyte firewire hard drive that I use with Apple’s Time Machine to create regular backups.  My settings call for hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months.  Windows users can try freeware like Karen's Replicator  or invest in commercial software like Semantec Backup Exec.
• Online remote backups.  I use Mozy to create a daily backup of my critical (and some not-so critical) files.  This service is really inexpensive and gives me additional peace of mind.  Another similar remote backup solution is Carbonite. 
• My laptop.  Whenever I go on a trip, whether it’s to visit relatives in another state or down the street to Eliott’s Fair Grounds, first I sync my laptop to my desktop with Mac software Chronosync.  This is mainly so that I can have access to the latest files in case I need to provide support to a client, or just finish up my daily to do list.  PC users can try Laplink PCsync 6.

 Other file backup ideas

• Dropbox.com.  This is a service that I’m trying out for specific files that I need to share or have access to from multiple locations.  For instance, I’m taking an ongoing Fiction Workshop and working on a novel (or two) and usually go back and forth between writing on my desktop and laptop.  Sometimes I’m just too lazy to run the sync program before I grab my laptop, so I’ve taken to storing my writing on Dropbox which automatically syncs my specified folders without me having to do a thing.  Software that supports my laziness, I love it.
• Google Docs.  Before trying Dropbox, my strategy was to upload the latest version of the aforementioned novel to Google Docs daily with a filename appended with that day’s date.  This is a great way of maintaining a record of the changes the story has gone through, as well as providing yet another backup of my precious file.

Am I serious about backing things up?  I’ll leave that to you do decide.  Do I still accidentally delete things?  You bet.  But chances are, if my boneheaded deletion has occurred recently, I have several places to start looking for a replacement file.

What's your backup strategy?  Have any favorite tools that I missed?  Let me know in the comments!