Based on the information in today’s WFTD (see WFTD above MTBF) it should be apparent to those few who haven’t already learned this the hard way that all hard drives eventually die. This means that you should always have a relatively current archive of your important data. Hard drives are very handy as work environments because they are cheap and fast, but for long term storage they are far from safe. You need to archive your important work. In our experience the most common backup made is the one done right AFTER the user lost all his/her data, which is the equivalent of locking the barn door after the horses have run away. The second most common is the backup made right after a tape drive was purchased – and then repeated only sporadically or whenever the user was bored or happened to think about it. Then there’s the person who thinks they’re protected by having a single backup, kept on or near the work area, which helps ensure that the catastrophe overtaking their hard drive, gets their only backup as well. Each of these examples are products of the “it can’t really happen to me” attitude that we all tend to exhibit. The trouble is, your drive WILL crash (or get stolen; or suffer a simple static spark; or power surge; or have coffee spilled into it, etc.) The only question is WHEN.
Real backup is more important today than ever. Hard disk capacities have skyrocketed, as has the amount and importance of the data stored on them. At a minimum, real backup means consistent backups over multiple pieces of media, with at least one copy of everything kept off-site. This is a security issue, so be paranoid. Murphy’s Law definitely applies here the file you overlook is the one you will need and the precaution you fail to take can cost you everything. You need a sound strategy and a consistently kept schedule. Here’s a good general recommendation for most people:
Use a tape drive or burn CD’s for your archive. The hard disk or removable you buy to do the job will eventually get used for your growing data needs and backup will be once again neglected. Tape was designed specifically for backups. It does the job effectively and inexpensively. CD’s are great because they are quasi-permanent (TTOTD 4/8/98). Start with a full backup of everything in your system and take that tape or CD to a different location. The next day do another full backup and label the tape or disc accordingly. The following day do the same thing. Now you have two complete backups on site and a third (now three days old) off site. Rotate the two on site backups through each day doing another backup. If your equipment provides a way to do an incremental back up (which copies everything that has changed since the last full backup) as many computer software archiving programs do, so much the better. Then just continue to rotate these two tapes. Once every week or two you should do a full backup to one of them and put that media in the off site location, bringing the old off site media into the daily rotation.
This method provides daily backups to protect you against minor calamities, and a weekly backup to protect against major ones. Don’t underestimate the importance of the off-site archive. I have seen scenarios where users are archiving corrupted data for a few days before their system died. Having a several day old archive can be a lifesaver.