The Year of Back-Up

Hello Geeks!

Welcome to a New Year. According to the Chinese it is the Year of the Ox. I suggest to you that this be the year of back up. To some, oxen are revered animals that “symbolize diligence, reliability, sincerity, strength and sound judgment”.



I encourage us all to be like the ox this year and make sure your systems and servers are backed up. Each year we hear from clients who call and ask us to help them setup their email again. This can be good news when they are upgrading to a new faster computer, but too often this is because had a problem with their current system and lost everything.

I hate to ask, but I must ask, “Do you have a back-up?” Too often the answer is “no”:-(. The oldest “computer expression” is this – there are two types of people, those who back-up their data and those that will. Unfortunately, those that will often don’t until they have a data disaster. I spoke with 2 individual last December about their data loss.

What would be the cost to you if you lost your data? According to wikipedia.com, the cost of a Data Loss Event is directly related to the value of the data and the length of time that it is needed, but unavailable. Consider:

• The cost of continuing without the data.
• The cost of recreating the data.

Yes, you can and will re-create all of your data, but at what cost?

Motivated to get backed-up? I hope so. Give you favorite geek a call.  Wait don’t call me.  We don’t fix or support computers.  I recommend that you get a hold of your computer tech to get a backup system in place. If you have one in place good for you, but don’t assume it is up to date or functional. Test out the data or have our tech check it for you. Back-ups that aren’t monitored might not be functioning properly.

In my opinion, the most important part of a good back plan is automation. In the perfect world we would all remember to click on the backup button every Wednesday @ 4.

But, in the real world we get busy and we forget. So a week or a month or a year (you get the picture) and we forget to back up. In 2008 we began using Time Machine from Apple. Previous to that time I would perform manual backups about every 3 to 6 months. It was a pain. With Time Machine we automatically back up ever hour. It is important that we check on the files from time to time, but the beauty is that the backups happen automatically. No user error required.

Fortunately, I’m blissfully ignorant to the offering in the windows world so I can’t suggest a solution. But, I can recommend that you get one in place before you have data loss.

If don’t have a good company to work with I encourage you to go to: www.cowlitztoday.com/washington
click on your city and then “Computers & Internet” you will find a list of local companies to help you get a plan in place. Get that data backed-up up this year you old Ox.

God Bless,
Oscar Myre IV

Valley Bugler Co-Publisher Oscar Myre IV is not only our geek he is also the creative director for omOriginals. www.omOriginals.com Call (360)575-9839 for any web site or graphic design related help or with marketing needs!