Backup Best Practices for the Small Business must include being able to quickly restore failed systems.
This problem completley disappears when you are running images – virtual copies – of your computer system!
This solves several poblems. Not only can you immedialy restart a failed image, your business continues to run.
The first step is very easy to accomplish: Download a free copy of Acronis 2011 and create an image of your courrent computer system. Copies of this image should also be made for storing in a safe place some where else. In case you need to use them you also need ready access to them.
At this point you have several options. I like the USB 3 type external drives for backup. If your system is less than 2 – 3 terabytes you can get two drives and make coomplete drive images every hour. Oh, whats that you say, ” Hey, Wayne I want to get something done besides backup!” Well, one simple way to get both is to wait for the business to close and run the backup image at night. Then run “incremental” change backups each hour – these are normally much quicker.
The frequency of backup is of course completely up to you. It all goes back to the first post inis series…
How Much data can you afford to lose?