 Creative Intelligence @ Your Service |
Site Map +1 214 234 9283 | Send Email |
Creative Intelligence @ Your Service |
Site Map +1 214 234 9283 | Send Email |
We had two notebook hard drive crashes this month. Fortunately we had backed up our data. Thus it seems reasonable to revisit guidelines on quarterly data archiving and backup issues.
Here's a myth we've run across this month. Some people keep data on removable disks thinking this practice is safer then keeping data on a hard disk. But statistically speaking, it's not!
Using the same floppy or ZIP disk over and over again is dangerous. With a floppy, the recording head exerts a small force on the media that over time (years) can render the media useless. With a ZIP drive there is no direct force, but the disk can still become damaged due to environmental factors such as magnetism and moisture.
The mean time between failure for a desktop hard disk is seven years. We expect five years of trouble free service, once the drive has passed the “infant mortality” period. By contrast, most people who use the same floppy disk over and over again to store critical data experience a failure every two years.
Using removable disks for data backup? Keep a pool of disks, for example one for each day of the week. If one fails, not everything is lost.
Most desktop organizers do not store important contact data, such as addresses, appointments, notes, and so on, in an account's data folder, “My Documents” in Windows and “Documents” on a Mac. Consequently we need to export this data to external files for archive and backup. We have a tip on our web site regarding the export of Outlook data.
Note Act, Palm, Outlook Express, and other personal information managers use a similar process: use the Export command under the File menu. This should be straight forward, but please contact us with questions if this process is confusing.
October starts the third quarter of the year, so it's time to send a copy of all business data off-site for safe keeping, perhaps to a bank safe deposit box. If one ever lost data due to a natural disaster, and tornado season is coming, one would still have records to both keep operating the business and substantiate loss claims with insurance adjusters.
What is the safest way to back up critical accounting and business data? On a server with redundant storage and network paths in an air and power conditioned room. Sound expensive? We are all probably paying for it, even if we don't use it!
Almost all Internet Service Providers offer customers web space. These servers are highly reliable and include the features mentioned above. Most of us have 100 or more megabytes of storage on these servers included in our ISP bills. But we're not taking advantage of the space.
Keep accounting data in QuickBooks? It's a simple matter to write an FTP script that copies this data to a web server. This script can be automated so it works during off hours or can be manually started by double clicking a desktop icon.
We recommend that all customers who are not using some other network backup facility at least implement web backup for their most critical business data: accounts payable and receivable, customer contact data, invoices, and so on. If the business engages in ten or more financial transactions a day, we also recommend using an automated backup script.
|
|
+1 214 234 9283 |