Disaster Recovery Disaster

Doing backups is a critical part of everyday computer operation.  The purpose of backups  is to make sure you have extra copies of your important data that you can recover in case a disaster occurs.  These backups can be to diskettes, CDs, DVDs, external drives or tapes.  Once the backup procedures are setup, they are usually very easy to follow.  But the most important thing to remember is to verify that the backup process continues to work correctly.  Here is an example from one of our customers (given with his permission) that shows what can happen when you don’t verify your backups.

Mike called our office early one morning to tell us that his business was broken into the night before, and that two computers (as well as other stuff) were stolen.  We immediately scheduled an appointment to recover his data from his backups.

The robbers stole the computer used as the file server, but they didn’t take the computer that had the tape backup unit installed.  We had setup his server and backup system almost two years ago, and had verified that the backup system was working correctly.  We had not been back there since that time (more about this in the next article).

Our plan was to restore the server data to another computer, then share those folders so the other computers can access the shared data.  But when I went into the restore section of the tape backup program, I saw that all of the backup data was more than a year old.  Reading each of the backup tapes confirmed that all of the data was old.  We restored what data we could.  Luckily, Mike had also been backing up his QuickBooks data to diskettes monthly, so that data was less than one month old.

Further research determined that the tape backup program was configured to append each backup set to the end of the tape, and that all of the tapes were full of old data.  Changing the backup program to erase each tape before starting a new backup solved the problem for the future.

The moral of this story is to make sure your backups continue to work correctly.  You should verify your backups every few months.  The best way to verify your backups is to go through the process of restoring a file from your backup to your computer.  If you don’t know how to test your particular backup system, please call us at 713-861-4183 and we will be happy to document the procedure for you.  If you would like for us to come out on a regular basis to check your backups and computer systems, please read the next article.

Preventive Maintenance 

Several of our customers have requested that we visit them regularly to make sure that their computer systems continue to function at peak efficiency. 

There are several reasons why regularly-scheduled appointments can save you money:

·        We can catch small problems before they turn into big problems (see above).

·        We can make sure your computers are not infected with spyware or viruses that leak valuable information to the outside world.

·        Regular appoinments will make budgeting for computer services easier.

Some of the things that we can do for you on a regular basis are:

·        Remove spyware and temporary files.

·        Verify that your anti-virus software is working correctly.

·        Verify that your backup software is working correctly.

·        Verify that all Windows Security Updates are downloaded and installed.

·        See if your other applications have updates.

·        Speed up your computer by defragmenting your hard drive.

So please call us at 713-861-4183 so we can create a maintenance schedule specifically designed for your computer network.