Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Top Six Reasons Why You Need A Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

I have seen so many startup businesses make the same old mistake of not having a data center disaster recovery plan and thinking that is not necessary. The most common reason that most of these businesses make this decision is that they see a disaster as an unlikely event. They also believe that their business does not need soft data to survive like some businesses which makes a plan like this an unnecessary expense and not really practical for what they are doing. The truth is regardless of what some people may think, implementing a solid data center disaster recovery plan is always a good idea. The following is a list of why it is necessary to have one and why it is essential to operate your business successfully.

Efficiency

Having a computer backup system will aid you in increasing work efficiency. It does so by helping you restore deleted and damaged files which cannot be repaired by ordinary computer utilities. The end result is a flawless work flow that is uninterrupted by any inconvenient computer issues. Having a data disaster recovery plan is not just for major catastrophes but also can be utilized in minor issues that can cause major delays in production.

Assurance

It is important that your employees and your customers have assurance that you are capable of protecting yourself against any type of disaster. Both your employees and customers will be at ease knowing that you are ready to handle any kind of problem and have a disaster plan in effect. This assurance also helps you in that it gives customers a reason to remain loyal to you and is also good at offering potential clients assurance that you can handle situation.

Security

In the modern day world file corruption is a very high risk. The threat of growing viruses and worms is growing exponentially every year. These computer viruses threaten systems everyday and do their damage in many different ways. When a data center is struck by a deadly virus or worm, it can bring a business to a halt and slow down production drastically. When you have a computer backup system it can fix any corrupted files and restore them quickly and getting your business back up to speed on production.

Savings

When you invest in a good data center disaster recovery plan you are also saving lots of money. The reason is that you are preventing future computer problems and solving just about any problem that comes your way. Any problem can slow down your business and increase spending due to paying computer repair technicians and decrease of work production.

Organization

With a computer backup system you have the ability to organize files and sort through any backup data very easily. This can come in handy if someone in your company accidently deletes a file and you need to find the original file to replace it quickly. A data disaster recovery plan also gives you the ability to customize the way you like to organize your documents.

Disaster Scenarios

If your are unlucky enough to get hit by a serious disaster like a fire or earthquake and lose valuable data, you will be one of the fortunate ones if you had a online computer backup. Having one of these will ensure that your business can be rebuilt quickly and be back up and running where you left off. Businesses that chose not to have a data center disaster recovery plan will be wishing they can turn back time and stop themselves from not taking it seriously as they rebuild their business from scratch starting with nothing.

Why You Need To Consider Online Data Storage Backup

Have you been looking for a way to store and backup your computer data? If so, one of the best ways to do it is with online data storage backup. While you may not know a lot about this type of storage there are many advantages to it. Here are some tips to help you better understand what online data storage backup is and how it can help your individual needs.

Why do you need to be concerned with storing your data?

Storing data online for backup purposes eliminates your dependency of having to use your hard drive when you need to retrieve important files and documents. Although it may not seem that important right now, when something happens that renders your hard drive inaccessible you will have a new appreciation to be sure. Regardless of whether the root of the problem is a failed hard drive or some sort of natural disaster that obliterates your home or business computer network, the end result is that you can no longer get to your data.

It doesn't matter if you have backup disks, if they are stored in the same location, the fire that raged through the office may very well destroy those backup disks as well. With online storage of your data, you can retrieve it from any computer that has an active Internet connection. That means if the office system is no longer working, simply go home, access your stored data, and get back to work.

Another reason to consider using online data storage backup is that you are never far away from your data. For people who travel for business and other purposes, this can be very important. Instead of panicking when it is discovered that an important document was not copied to disk or the hard drive of the laptop one is traveling with, simply access the remote server and download a copy from the stored data.

There is no need to make frantic phone calls to the office and make arrangements for someone to email the file, upload it to an ftp site or make a copy and send it to you for next day delivery. Instead, you simply log into your online data storage site and account, download what you need, and go about your business. And you have this access 24/7.

Finally, one of the best things about this type of storage is the low costs involved. The truth is, you may even find it to be far less costly than your current methods of backing up important data. With that being the case, you should seriously consider the concept of storing your data online.

Monday, November 26, 2007

6 Reasons Why Businesses Need A Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

There are many reasons why it is always a good idea to have a data center disaster recovery plan. Listed below are 6 of the most important ones to outline why a computer backup system may be essential to your business.

1. A sense of security. For customers and employees to feel confident and secure it makes sense to put a data center recovery plan in place. They will rest assured knowing the company has the foresight to plan ahead to deal with any unforeseen potential disaster with a computer backup system in place. Installing a computer backup system also displays professionalism and business acumen giving customers the impression that the business is 'here to stay.' This belief can actually stabilize and increase the essential customer base, helping the business to continue to grow.

2. Organization. Another very important aspect to any business is good organization and proper documentation of data. With good data center disaster recovery plans in place computer backup systems are often capable of organizing and sorting data easily, allowing access to files, which may have been mistakenly deleted or lost. This can be a lifesaver in some situations!

3. Security issues. With countless computer viruses and worms in everyday circulation contamination of your system is a very real threat. With a computer backup system in place you can have the peace of mind that should the files on your computer suffer damage the corrupted files can easily be replaced, allowing your business to run on uninterrupted.

4. Maintaining success. Computer backup systems assist in efficiently replacing corrupted or deleted files, which can aid in the smooth running of your business without adversely effecting production. Having data center disaster recovery plans in place would mean that small hiccups with the potential to slow production, could be instantly corrected not just the major disasters.

5. Make savings. Money can be saved with an investment in a data center recovery plan. Having a computer backup system in place can prevent production being slowed making savings in the longer term and can actually help the business survive should a major disaster occur!

6. Picture a major disaster occurring; your computer picks up a virus that deletes everything from your hard drive, (yes, there are viruses out there that can do this and new ones are being created every day). Could your business continue to run with all this information deleted? With a data center disaster recovery plan in place all the deleted files and folders could simply be replaced. Businesses that did not bother to install an online computer backup system would have to replace this information manually and would suffer financially for a long time to come. Imagine replacing all that information from scratch!

What Good Is Backup If You Can't Recover Your Information?

1) Business owners download and install the online backup software of their choice all on their own.

This is a huge mistake.

Why? Because these business owners are experts in their fields-like coaching, speaking, writing, marketing, sales, retail etc.-but are not experts when it comes to technology, their computers, and their digital information.

They know how to use their computers, but they certainly couldn't take apart and rebuild them. Likewise, they don't have a full understanding of how (and where) their information is actually stored on their computer's hard drive.

And here's a fact: no two computers save information in exactly the same directories, folders and files.

So how can one downloadable "standard" backup program, that non-tech-savvy business owners set up themselves, possibly find and backup all of the critical and proprietary information stored on their computer?

It's impossible.

So what happens? The downloadable backup software doesn't get installed and set up properly in the first place. Information is missed, and because this information is not initially included in the backup set, it never gets backed up ... and therefore cannot be recovered.

2) Cost conscious business owners trust their critical information to the cheapest backup service they can find on the web, and later find out that no systems are in place to monitor the completion of their backup, and no alarms are triggered when their backup is not successful.

You really do get what you pay for. Don't make the mistake of bargain shopping when it comes to protecting the information that allows you to earn a living and support your family.

Just do the math.

If you're thinking about paying $5/month to automatically backup and store offsite all of your emails, teleseminars, pdf files, prospect lists, client database, accounting files, office documents, photographs and image files, you're thinking about protecting the future of your business with the "best deal" going.

But what you don't know is that the "best deal" is so darn cheap because it's running on automatic in the worst sense of the word. Just think: $5/month cannot possibly pay for a team of qualified storage specialists to monitor and test your backups on a daily basis.

There is no team of people behind a $5/month backup service. No one is checking to make sure that your backup is actually happening every day. No one will call you if your backup stops working. No one cares. Even your credit card gets charged automatically every month, no matter if your backup completed a single time in the last 30 days, or NOT.

3) New applications are installed on the business computer, but the business owner fails to manually add these new files to their downloaded backup system, or they fail to notify their full-service backup provider about the new programs.

New programs must be added to your backup set, or the information will not be stored.

If you invest in a full-service online backup service, you will receive regular reminders to contact them should new applications be installed on your computers. At which point, their storage specialists will connect remotely to your computers, and make the adjustments to your backup set so that all of your new files are also backed up on a daily basis.

If you are thinking about downloading your backup software from the web, you must familiarize yourself with the steps to add new files to your backup set, and trust that the software will recognize and backup your new programs.

Automated offsite backup services are the absolute best way to protect the future of your business, but none of these services are psychic. Software programs such as these are not intuitive, so they don't realize that a new application has been installed on your computer. And if they don't know that these new files exist, they can't include them in your backup set.

In this regard, business owners must be diligent in communicating with their backup service providers to ensure that ALL of their critical information is being backed up every day.

In conclusion, making the decision to backup your business is an investment that can literally save you from bankruptcy, and protect all of the hours, dollars, blood, sweat and tears that you've invested thus far in building your business. It's one of the smartest decisions that you can make as a business owner. And you should absolutely research and compare these backup services.

My advice, clearly, is to invest in a full-service online, automated backup solution, with a team of storage specialists that install and set up the backup application for you, personally monitor your backup, and contact you immediately if your backup is not completing successfully.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Lost Data: What Do You Do When It Happens To You

Most if not all forms of storage is susceptible to becoming damaged or corrupt. When your hard disk drives, CDs, DVDs or RAID arrays fail it is time to attempt recover your lost data. Data recovery describes the techniques implemented by IT professionals to salvage data that has been lost. Not only does it apply to drives that are physically or logically corrupt, data recovery is also used as a term to describe the process of retrieving and securing deleted information. Police departments and government agencies often uses these sorts of techniques for forensics purposes.

Usually the need for data recovery is because it has been accidentally deleted from the system. If this is the case, then normally most of the data can be recovered. But when data is lost due to physically damage or from malicious software, such as a virus, the chances of recovering your lost data goes down significantly. For simple data recovery, like for an accidentally deleted file, you can do-it-yourself by purchasing “Undelete” software. For physical damage, like what occurs when a computer is submerged in a flooded basement, it is best to contact a specialist to assist you.

If you decided to attempt to recover your data yourself on a physically damaged or corrupt drive you will need to keep a couple of things in mind. Do not allow your system to start up or run from the damaged drive. Instead, create a boot disk, boot from a USB stick drive, or use another hard drive to run the system from. Do not run the data recovery software from the drive needing repair. Again, try to run the software from some other source like a USB memory stick. Now a days, many operating systems come with a set of data recovery tools packaged with their installation programs. This can help make the job of recovering your lost data much easier. To find these tools, simply find your installation disks for your operating system and put the first disk in the computer. It should guide you from there.

Data Recovery After Formatting - Why It is Important to Perform Data Recovery After Formatting

If you have ever had the unfortunate experience of your computer crashing then you know how hard it is to replace all the information you had saved on the system. It is very important that you perform data recovery after formatting. This will give you the best chances of saving as much information as possible from your hard drive. There are a couple of steps you can use to make the process less painful for you.

Before you take the time to complete the data recovery after formatting process you need to test your system. Is it stable now so you can begin adding the lost data back into the hard drive? If not then your efforts at this point will be fruitless. A good way to test your system is to load information on it that really isn’t important data. It is important though to make sure that information isn’t corrupted. It should open and close for you very easily. If this all works well then it is safe to assume your system is operating normally again and at the right speed. It is now safe to begin data recovery processes.

As you begin the data recovery after formatting process you need to pay close attention to the progress it is making. If you get the impression there is any problem during the process take a close look at it. Any pop up messages that ask you about a particular file may be an indicator of a problem.

Once the data recovery has been completed you can randomly check the material. Open up several different files that offer important information. For example if you use the computer to manage your business accounts then check the Accounts Payable and Receivable accounts for access. You also want to make sure you can send and receive e-mail without complications.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Mobile Phone SIM Card Data Recovery

Mobiles can hold vast data of information via a device called the Subscriber Identity Module card, popularly known as the SIM card. This tiny card can offer a lot of value as it maintains your data, preferences, and enables portability. This removable SIM card device also helps to keep your data secure.

SIM Cards and Our Mobile Phones

SIM cards play a very important role in managing our data on our mobile phones. This SIM card acts as mobile data memory. It is due to the SIM card that your mobile can hold the valuable phone numbers of your business clients, friends, and family. SMS forms a very important way to communicate these days. You must have sent millions of messages from your mobile phones to connect with your loved ones or for business purposes. The SIM card allows you to store these messages on your mobile phone.

Mobile phones have become much more than just phones. People increasingly use their mobile phones to take pictures or shoot video clips. In addition, people are also downloading music on their mobile phones these days. Modern SIM cards allow users to store large amounts of data without worrying about the lack of storage capacity.

The SIM card also enables transfer of data such as messages and phone book from one mobile phone to another. This can be extremely beneficial when users change their mobile phone sets, which has become a frequent phenomenon these days.

Can you Lose Data from Your SIM Card?

SIM cards, like any other electronic device are prone to damages. Mobile phone crime is on rise and malicious people involved in mobile theft have made SIM cards their partner in crime. SIM cards are delicate electronic devices and can be damaged very easily if they are manhandled.

How Can you Lose Data from Your SIM Card?

There are times when people get SIM card errors while making a call or receiving a call. This may be due to a hardware error because the SIM detection tab under the SIM card becomes faulty. In some cases, the SIM card door becomes loose due to which, the SIM card is not able to function properly and you may not be able to make or receive calls. The electronic circuit space wherein the SIM card gets fitted may also get faulty, due to which the SIM card will not be able to read the data. The SIM card itself may also get faulty. This can be a problem that will be more serious in nature because in such cases you will have to not only get the SIM card replaced but also recover the data from your damaged SIM card.

However, hardware errors are not the only errors that are responsible for loss of data from your SIM card. There are times when an accidental corruption can result in data loss from your SIM card. A virus infection is also one of the major reasons for data loss. In such cases, data will be lost or corrupted and you will have to either buy data recovery software of hire data recovery specialists to retrieve your data.

Are There any DIY Software Packages Available to Recover Data From Mobile Phones?

There are a lot of DIY software packages available in the market that can help you recover your messages as well as phone books. There is software that's read-only software. Therefore, they are completely non-destructive for your lost data because the risk of the data being overwritten by the data recovery software is eliminated. However, if you want to buy this software, make sure that you check whether or not the software will work if your SIM card is locked due to unauthorized PIN code. There is some software that explicitly states that the software will be rendered ineffective if the SIM card is locked.

Will Calling up a Professional Recovery Service be a Good Idea?

It depends on how important the lost data is to you. If the data on your SIM card is extremely important and can result in huge financial losses or emotional discomfort, then it would be a good idea to call up a professional data recovery service. Hiring the services of a data recovery specialist significantly increases your chances of successful data recovery. While most DIY software promises data recovery, the question remains as to how successful this recovery will be.

Data-Recovery - Take Data Center Disaster Recovery Plans To A New Level With Online Computer Backups

Recent technology in the field of online computer backups has made data center disaster recovery plans a breeze.

In the old days (think before 2005), data center disaster recovery plans were only marginally effective. Data had to be stored on CD's, in folders, on zip disks (remember those?), and on backup computers. Many businesses didn't bother to backup data to a separate location at all.

The major flaw with backing up to "the backup computer" has always been an issue of security. Most backup computers are connected to a network in the office, which allows for easy data transfer. Certain threats, like system bugs or viruses, to any of the computers on the network then become threats to all the computers on the network. Clearly, this plan does not represent a secure data backup system.

Advances in technology have addressed these issues. Many computer backup systems now feature online computer backups, and businesses are now able to store their data online, keeping their data centers secure and safe from viruses and system bugs.

Online computer backup systems can add additional security to important data with the use of password systems that restrict access to the data. This type of security extends data protection to address hackers and unauthorized personnel.

Online computer backups also save space at the office. Typically, more data can be stored online than in any folder, CD or even backup computer. This translates to increases in work efficiency and production.

Businesses small and large are now better equipped to deal with any disaster, because all the important data is stored remotely, in a central location, which makes for much more efficient data center disaster recovery plans.

No matter what catastrophe hits, online computer backups have these businesses covered. Business owners can be assured that whether a file got corrupted or a full system crash occurred, their data has remained safe.

Realize, however, that when choosing a computer backup system with an online backup system, it is advisable to make sure that it can deliver the goods. If it can, then you have probably found a data center disaster recovery plan that will maximize your disaster coverage.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Mobile Phone SIM Card Data Recovery

Mobiles can hold vast data of information via a device called the Subscriber Identity Module card, popularly known as the SIM card. This tiny card can offer a lot of value as it maintains your data, preferences, and enables portability. This removable SIM card device also helps to keep your data secure.

SIM Cards and Our Mobile Phones

SIM cards play a very important role in managing our data on our mobile phones. This SIM card acts as mobile data memory. It is due to the SIM card that your mobile can hold the valuable phone numbers of your business clients, friends, and family. SMS forms a very important way to communicate these days. You must have sent millions of messages from your mobile phones to connect with your loved ones or for business purposes. The SIM card allows you to store these messages on your mobile phone.

Mobile phones have become much more than just phones. People increasingly use their mobile phones to take pictures or shoot video clips. In addition, people are also downloading music on their mobile phones these days. Modern SIM cards allow users to store large amounts of data without worrying about the lack of storage capacity.

The SIM card also enables transfer of data such as messages and phone book from one mobile phone to another. This can be extremely beneficial when users change their mobile phone sets, which has become a frequent phenomenon these days.

Can you Lose Data from Your SIM Card?

SIM cards, like any other electronic device are prone to damages. Mobile phone crime is on rise and malicious people involved in mobile theft have made SIM cards their partner in crime. SIM cards are delicate electronic devices and can be damaged very easily if they are manhandled.

How Can you Lose Data from Your SIM Card?

There are times when people get SIM card errors while making a call or receiving a call. This may be due to a hardware error because the SIM detection tab under the SIM card becomes faulty. In some cases, the SIM card door becomes loose due to which, the SIM card is not able to function properly and you may not be able to make or receive calls. The electronic circuit space wherein the SIM card gets fitted may also get faulty, due to which the SIM card will not be able to read the data. The SIM card itself may also get faulty. This can be a problem that will be more serious in nature because in such cases you will have to not only get the SIM card replaced but also recover the data from your damaged SIM card.

However, hardware errors are not the only errors that are responsible for loss of data from your SIM card. There are times when an accidental corruption can result in data loss from your SIM card. A virus infection is also one of the major reasons for data loss. In such cases, data will be lost or corrupted and you will have to either buy data recovery software of hire data recovery specialists to retrieve your data.

Are There any DIY Software Packages Available to Recover Data From Mobile Phones?

There are a lot of DIY software packages available in the market that can help you recover your messages as well as phone books. There is software that's read-only software. Therefore, they are completely non-destructive for your lost data because the risk of the data being overwritten by the data recovery software is eliminated. However, if you want to buy this software, make sure that you check whether or not the software will work if your SIM card is locked due to unauthorized PIN code. There is some software that explicitly states that the software will be rendered ineffective if the SIM card is locked.

Will Calling up a Professional Recovery Service be a Good Idea?

It depends on how important the lost data is to you. If the data on your SIM card is extremely important and can result in huge financial losses or emotional discomfort, then it would be a good idea to call up a professional data recovery service. Hiring the services of a data recovery specialist significantly increases your chances of successful data recovery. While most DIY software promises data recovery, the question remains as to how successful this recovery will be.

Data-Recovery - Take Data Center Disaster Recovery Plans To A New Level With Online Computer Backups

Recent technology in the field of online computer backups has made data center disaster recovery plans a breeze.

In the old days (think before 2005), data center disaster recovery plans were only marginally effective. Data had to be stored on CD's, in folders, on zip disks (remember those?), and on backup computers. Many businesses didn't bother to backup data to a separate location at all.

The major flaw with backing up to "the backup computer" has always been an issue of security. Most backup computers are connected to a network in the office, which allows for easy data transfer. Certain threats, like system bugs or viruses, to any of the computers on the network then become threats to all the computers on the network. Clearly, this plan does not represent a secure data backup system.

Advances in technology have addressed these issues. Many computer backup systems now feature online computer backups, and businesses are now able to store their data online, keeping their data centers secure and safe from viruses and system bugs.

Online computer backup systems can add additional security to important data with the use of password systems that restrict access to the data. This type of security extends data protection to address hackers and unauthorized personnel.

Online computer backups also save space at the office. Typically, more data can be stored online than in any folder, CD or even backup computer. This translates to increases in work efficiency and production.

Businesses small and large are now better equipped to deal with any disaster, because all the important data is stored remotely, in a central location, which makes for much more efficient data center disaster recovery plans.

No matter what catastrophe hits, online computer backups have these businesses covered. Business owners can be assured that whether a file got corrupted or a full system crash occurred, their data has remained safe.

Realize, however, that when choosing a computer backup system with an online backup system, it is advisable to make sure that it can deliver the goods. If it can, then you have probably found a data center disaster recovery plan that will maximize your disaster coverage.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

External Drives Data Recovery

A wide variety of failures can propel severe external or physical damage to drives and storage media. When the drive is physically damaged, a greater level of precaution needs to be exercised in order to ensure that the data is still recoverable. To clarify your understanding, external hard drive data recovery means the process of recovering data from external hard drives like USB or Fire wire when the data is neither lost nor inaccessible because of some reason or the other. External hard drive data recovery process comprises the same process followed while trying to recover some lost files. Let's take the example of the ICD-ROMs which may get damaged because their metallic substrate is scratched.

Keep in mind that hard disks can suffer any of several mechanical failures, such as head crashes. There can be a case of failed motors so physical damage always causes at least some minimal case of data loss.

Most physical damaged drives cannot be repaired by the end users. For example, opening a hard disk in a normal environment is a complete no-no because the dust would obviously settle on the surface. If that happens, that could worsen the damage caused to the platters and complicate the external drive data recovery process even further.

The difficulty is that most users aren't experts nor do they have the hardware or technical expertise required to make these repairs. So it is best to opt for data recovery companies to do the job rather than make costlier mistakes that complicate data recovery processes further. Most professionals use Class 100 clean room facilities to protect the media while repairs are being made. How this is done is discussed herein.

The extracted raw image is used to reconstruct data that can be used after any repair of the logical damage is carried out. Once the repair is complete, the files may be in usable form although its actual recovery may turn out to be very incomplete.

Some helpful examples of physical recovery procedures include removing a damaged PCB (printed circuit board) and replacing it with a matching PCB from a healthy drive. Other good examples comprise changing the original damaged read/write head assembly with matching parts from a healthy drive, removing the hard disk platters from the original damaged drive and installing them into a drive that works fine. As these procedures are technical in nature, it is best that these are taken care of by professionals and not by untrained persons.

When the hard drive is physically damaged, remember that any additional access to the same drive would definitely corrupt data. This would make it much more difficult to get information back. Note that if the damaged drive happens to be the drive containing the operating system, don't consider trying to boot the drive. But for a desktop, there is less cause for worry as all you must do is disconnect the boot drive and replace it with a new drive. A tip for you is that do ensure the drive can accommodate the image of the current drive.

Next, an operating system can be easily installed on the new drive. You just need to reconnect the old drive or put it in an external case and connect via USB or FireWire.

In creating a new primary drive, you would be able to run the disk imaging software from the new drive. This way, you would be able to prevent the need for any writing to the old drive. If your hard drive works in a RAID system, you need a service that specializes in RAID data recovery as it wont be a good idea to do it on your own.

When a hard drive is prepared for its initial use, the drive is magnetized. This is done with a number of self-synchronizing magnetic bits. The purpose of this self-synchronizing structure is that, no matter where the hard disk is in its rotation cycle, the hard drive controller would be able to speedily touch down as to which of these bits represent no-man's land, which of these actually represent the drive's formatting, and which represent critical data.

Various situation based examples were discussed to clarify your queries on external data drive recovery. So do utilize this informative discussion sometime when you come across data problems on your external hard drive.

Life Challenges Can Create Havoc With Your Business - Accessing And Protecting Data During A Crisis

How prepared are you for a crisis?

Unexpected life challenges occur in many categories:

1. Fires

2. Floods

3. Earthquakes

4. Burglary

5. Accidents

6. Illness

7. Technology Failure

With the recent California fires and previous disasters throughout the world, it reminds me of just how vulnerable we are to environmental crises. These emergency circumstances not only affect our personal safety and our homes, but can also have devastating effects on our businesses.

One particular area of concern is loss of data for our business. Think of how it would be if you lost everything on your hard drive. Some of you may have already had this experience if your computer hard drive failed. If you did not have backup, you had a lot of pieces together to do of not only documents, but also contact information and perhaps an online calendar.

A few years ago I had the experience of my Outlook crashing due to too much data saved on the program. Something I didn't know about Outlook 2000 is that it has a limit of how much data it can hold. I had all my contacts, email, and calendar on Outlook without any backup. I felt paralyzed to do anything with my business. I was able to view current incoming mail on the web email available with my server, but could not view any past emails.

Fortunately, I was able to access the data with the help of their technical support team. I immediately went out to purchase a PDA so that I would be able to sync all my information from the computer to the handheld scheduling device. I also signed up with an online backup system so that all of my files would be backed up on a daily basis.

What about documents that you may have in hard copy or on your computer hard drive? Essential documents that you have only in hard copy should be scanned and saved. Having them only on your hard drive is not secure enough. You can have these available to you even if your computer crashes, is stolen, burned, flooded, etc. without even using a portable flash storage device that could also not be available.

Using Google Photo or one of the many photo storage sites, you can upload the digital files of your scanned documents for no cost. These can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet.

You can upload web pages, word, excel, power point, and text documents to Google Documents. You can set these so anyone can access and edit or keep them private. As a precautionary measure I've uploaded all of my web pages to the documents. There is also a feature that will update your document anytime you change something on your website. Pretty cool! Photos are not shown on the pages, however. You'll need to save these separately to Google Photo.

I like using Google mail for most of my correspondence so that I have access to all my current and past email. There is no limit to their storage size and they have an easy search tool to find any mail you need for reference. Service has no charge and if seeing Google ads next to your email doesn't bother you, it is a good choice. I often forward mail from my Outlook email account to Gmail so I have it available for reference no matter what.

Finally, for financial records, Quick Books' online option is a great way to have access to all of this information no matter where you are. There is a charge for this after your initial trial period. It also makes it possible for a virtual assistant or bookkeeper to have access to do work for you.

Putting some thought into all the aspects of your business that would be affected in a crisis situation can save you lots of frustration and money. Time and money for some of these services put into these preparations is a great investment toward your Healthy Bottom Line.

http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Computers-and-Technology:Data-Recovery

The basis of data protection is simply backing up your data. All areas on your disk should be backed up regularly. A complete backup program consists of the follows steps:

- Backing up the drive type (if you are using an older system or hard drive i.e (the MBR including the FAT daily), system files and the user data (regularly), making an "emergency" boot floppy for each system and taking precautions to minimise the probability of an accidental format and it is also very important that you

- regularly defragment the data to ease any data recovery tasks, take advantage of verification features of the operating system and applications if applicable. Keep at the back of your mind the threat posed by computer viruses and knowledge of how to protect your computer and data. The safest way to avoid computer viruses is to use an excellent antivirus and update it regularly.

- Also of great important is the CMOS information of your hard drive type. Document specifications for the drive (heads, sector and you will always be able to enter the data into your new system and get the drive to work.

Backing up system files cannot be overemphasised. Your operating system' s default systems files, includes configuration files that directs the operating system on how to work and how your applications should work with it. If you loose these files you may come to a dead end. If you are concerned about data integrity, backup regularly and quickly too.

I wonder how many of you have backed up your hard disk in the last seven days or one month. There are two kinds of hard disk users: the ones who have had a disk failure and lost data that wasn't backed up and the ones who are going to loose data. You should endeavour not to be among any of the users because it would be a disaster to loose vital information.

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