You Could be in for a VERY Nasty Shock.
If you don't have a "Tested - Proven" backup and restore procedure, it's inevitable that one day ... you'll regret it. I don't care if you have RAID, Mirrored disks, or any other magic. You MUST have a proven backup (and offsite backups) with a Proven restore procedure if you want to be safe.
Personally, I'm not a Windows fan.
But I still use windows, quite a lot because many of the applications I use just aren't available for Unix / Linux, and sometimes even the MAC.
Just the last few days I've been testing some Windows Backup software, and so far I'm impressed beyond belief - and I'm not easily impressed when it comes to Windows backups and restore. If this product lives up to the expectations I've been set, I'll be writing up some juicy details here because so far ... it looks like the "bee's knees" of all the backup systems I've seen.
Testing complete.Acronis Data Protection Bundle is the clear choice . . . - Not Only for me and my business, but Also for my Home PCs - And here is Exactly Why I believe You should consider this amazing package for All YOUR Windows backups. The "Data Protection Bundle" consists of three items which should be in every Windows Users toolkit - and they are ...
Get this ...True Image Echo Workstation and Universal Restore allow you to restore your backup image to "Different Hardware". Being able to restore to "Different Hardware" is a "Real Lifesaver". The ability to restore to different hardware is only available with the "Universal Restore" plugin (included in the bundle) and is only One of the Many "Must Have" benefits to be found in this package. Have YOU ever had to replace some of your hardware after a disaster only to find windows pokes a wabbly at you - Blue screens of death ... then days (or weeks) wasted, reinstalling from scratch to get your system and business critical applications working properly again ?. I have - and I never want to go through that again. |
A few days ago, I said "It appears this vendor has some totally amazing products, and if they truly deliver I'll be switching to their products exclusively for my backup, restore, disaster recovery and system/data migration solutions".
Well - I've done enough testing to know that this range of products truly deliver, and I really wish I'd had this up my sleeve before my last "laptop drive crash".
Although the "Acronis True Image 11 Home" may be adequate for many home users, I recommend that even your average home PC user should consider looking at the "True Image Echo Workstation" - in particular the "Data Protection Bundle" which provides the key Universal Restore plugin is a real bargain .
The key features which make this software so cool are;
If you've never had to deal with a real data loss disaster, then you are very lucky. Although hard drives are pretty reliable these days, there's one thing you can count on.
Hard drives don't last forever ... And one day, probably when you least expect it, you'll have yourself a failed hard drive that you need to get back quick smart. - I have one thing to say - You had better be prepared !. |
I'd like YOU to have a look at and evaluate your "Risk" with your current backup regime (if you have one that is ?).
If you're like a lot of people I come across, then you may not be in a very safe spot right now.
It never ceases to amaze me just how badly many of us neglect the value of our data and systems . . . Until we've been through a bad experience and suffered a major loss or downtime.
Now - Let me try and help you put things in perspective. |
1) Backing Up Your Systems.
I'm going to start off with the subject of backups.
I'll go into more detail on backup regimes and how to work out what's right for you in a later article. Before I do that, I want YOU to get a good grasp and understanding of the Impact and Gravity of the subject.
That way, you might take a bit more notice and pay careful attention and
thought to your own situations when I cover these separate areas in detail.
First up - Let's talk about Backup Regimes ... |
Did you know that a "proper backup regime" is one of the most important things you "Need" to have in place ... yet one of the most "ignored or neglected " issues by many small business and home users ?.
In some ways you can probably understand that - simply because people see obsticles and excuses NOT to do a backup (even some imaginery ones) like ...
* backups are a hassle. * most people seldom need to restore anything. * backup devices and media have traditionally been expensive. * just another thing to do - why do it today if you can put it off until tomorrow ?. * Data volume - backups getting difficult due to sheer volume and time constraints. * storage and offsite backups ? - yet another hassle. * system, software, and media compatibility ?. |
And - here's a classic with Internet Marketers (sorry guys 'n gals - it's true) ...
"Don't Be Fooled". No matter "Where Your Data Is" - YOU need to make sure it is Backed Up and Safe - it's YOUR Data, YOUR Responsibility!. |
To make this point clear, go read what happened to Tim Brocklehurst.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not insinuating by these comments that Tim is a fool, but just to illustrate how Tim thought his host would have a backup and all would OK once they restored his data.
But it was not to be - and that is truly a disaster.
Can you imagine the sinking feeling in the pit of Tim's stomach ?.
Just when he was supposed to be relaxing on holiday, his world collapsed on
top of him.
There are thousands of examples like this.
I'm sure you get the picture, so I don't really need to point out any others.
But I WILL repeat myself here:
I Don't care "where in the world you data exists" ... It is YOUR Data - and YOU are responsible for it in Every Way. You are responsible for you data's * Care * Security * Safety |
In case you can't tell, I want you to really take this on board. It's likely you who will come off the worst if you allow a big disaster to hit that you can't recover from, but remember that if such a disaster involves any business data ...
Other People and Their Businesses may be Badly Hurt too.
As a business owner (or if you care about your personal PC data),
you need to eliminate all the above mentioned obsticles (and any others you can come up with) and put
a "Proper Backup Regime" in place - as soon as you can.
OK - I'm sure you're starting to see the importance of backups ...
so let's take a look at the next part.
2) Data / System Restoration.
It's all very well having decided on your backup regime, putting in place the necessary software, devices, and media to make it all happen ... but what about "Restoring Your Data - or indeed Entire Systems" when needed.
Unfortunately, restoring is yet another badly overlooked issue - even more so than backups.
A Backup is Totally Useless if you Can't SUCCESSFULLY Restore. |
I've seen system after system where someone's found them selves with a false sense of security because they've worked out a backup regime that they're happy with and implemented it - and it seems to be ticking along fine ... UNTIL ?.
*Disaster Strikes *Accidental Data Loss or Hard Disk Failure *Time to Reach for the Backups !. |
And then the *Real Disaster* kicks in when they find ...
We have backups - yes
Can we restore from them ? - *NO*
We never actually *Fully Tested* a restore ...
* Bugger - Too Late Now *.
That's right - sometimes people put a lot of effort into getting the backup
regime in place and working, yet totally forget about fully Testing and Proving restore procedures.
You Must Test and Prove Your Restore Capability and Procedures.
On top of that - you should not only do this once, you should Perform Restore Tests Periodically to make sure everything is working how you
think and want to believe it is.
As I said - in my work I've come across these disasters all too often.
Let me tell you a story about one such encounter.
Once upon a time ... many years ago actually, an IT consultant called me up and said "Cliff - I've got a problem down at the medical council which has got me stumped, could you come and take a look at it for me ?."
Of course I replied "No problem Ian, what's the problem".
Ian proceeded to tell me that he'd put in a new office system about six months
ago, and just recently someone accidentally deleted a word processing file.
The problem they were having was restoring anything from the backup tapes.
I grabbed my gear and trundled on down to the medical council for a look ...
"What I found was both Astounding and Alarming".
Their system was a multi-user SCO Unix with a QIC Cartridge backup.
I took their tapes one by one and inspected them with the standard unix command line tools.
My conclusion "Absolutely Shocked them all ".
"All Your Backup Tapes are BLANK" - I told them.
Well - at first they really didn't understand how that could be possible.
After all, their view of things was like this ...
Every night when the office closed, their administrator would load the tape for the nightly backup, then start the backup from the "Backup Menu", and once the administrator "Saw it Successfully Writing Files" (so they thought) to the tape they went home.
Then the following morning morning, the administrator checked the system console, "Saw the Successfully Completed" message on the screen then unloaded the tape and write protected it before filing it away.
So How Could Their Tapes ALL be BLANK ?.
After all, their administrator checked the backup start and finish meticulously every day...
and the Backup was *Always Successful*.
But alas - it had *Never Been Successful*. *Not Even Once*. They had never needed to restore a file on the new system ... *Until Now*. They had *Never Tested Any Type of Restore*. |
They *Assumed* it would work because the backup messages always told them the
backup was successful.
Needless to say - *Ian, their IT Consultant got a bit of a lecture from me*.
Ian had let his customer down badly, and it was really due to his own ignorance.
Fortunately, there is a good end to this story, but before I get to the end, here are a couple of important points that came from this *Near Disaster*, which Ian learned from and swiftly put into place.
1) *Never Assume Anything* ... Test, Test and Test again. 2) Always Verify your Backups. 3) Always set up a "Full Disaster Recovery Plan" and test when implementing *Any System*. |
*** The Cause *** of the blank tapes was very simple.
The tape drive was faulty ... yes it was writing to the tapes, but the "Erase
Head" control was faulty, keeping the erase head turned on continuously.
So as the drive wrote the data, it simultaneously erased it.
*** The Happy Ending ***.
I gave the medical council the bad news about the tape drive and their backups
(or lack of) and we installed a replacement tape drive ... and *TESTED IT*.
As I was in the process of "Doing the Business", a "Very Astute older Woman" in the office called me over ...
"Excuse me" she called out, waving a QIC Tape cartridge at me ... "I think you might want this" she exclaimed.
I walked over to her desk and she proceeded to tell me ... "I'm always concerned
when they change things on these computer systems, so before that bloke put the new computer in I took an *Extra Backup* from the old system and stuck it in my bottom drawer ... just
in case you know. Hopefully it's got what you need."
Well, fortunately that tape *DID* have the files which had been deleted, and we got the deleted file back without any problem.
A good result in the end, BUT ... It begs the question;
What if they had Lost More than a Couple of Files ? *Their ONLY Backup was SIX MONTHS OLD* And they ONLY had that backup because a certain person was smart enough NOT to TRUST it to Anything or Anyone but herself when the system was upgraded !. |
The Bottom line is ...
If they had suffered any kind of totally unrecoverable hard disk crash, they
would have lost at least six months worth of data ... and ONLY because that smart woman took an extra backup - otherwise, who knows whether they could have just LOST Everything !.
Summary:
Backups, restore tests, and *Full Disaster Recovery* testing are something that everyone should be doing ... if you value your data at all.
You have to ask yourself, what would be the impact if I lost all this *TOTALLY* and could never get it back.
If the answer is that you couldn't care less because it's of no real value, then I guess you have no real reason to be concerned about backups and recovery. However, in reality I don't think anyone's going to give that answer.
With the volumes of data we have to deal with today, I often see people making the huge mistake of falling into a false sense of security with "Raid Arrays and Mirroring" - somehow coming to the conclusion that they don't really have to worry about backups any more.
*Wrong ... Wrong ... Unbelievable Conclusion*. *Raid and Mirroring* may reduce your risk ... but *Don't Be Fooled* |
I've seen *TOTAL Disaster* in these scenarios too ... I feel another story coming on !.
Actually, I just dealt with such a near total disaster with a major corporate
about two months ago - it's a scary story, one with similar lessons, and one that *I Will
Write About* ... but not today.
For now, I'm going to close off with the main points I want you to take away
with you:
1) *Never ASSUME Anything* ... Test, Test, Test and PROVE your systems.
2) Assess the value of *Your Data*.
3) Work out a *Suitable Backup Regime*.
4) Find a *Suitable Backup and Restore* solution.
5) Implement and test the backups.
6) Always "Verify Backups".
7) Test (prove) you can *Restore Single Files* and directories.
8) Test (prove) you can "Faultlessly Restore your Entire Systems".
(Note: - you should always prove you can restore to *New Hardware*).
I hope you found some value in this.
Now please go and evaluate *Your Situation*.
To your 'better' success,
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