FAQs answered
How good is your backup system?
For companies as well as individuals, time constraints and lack of appreciation of potential disastrous consequences often make data back-up a low priority. Yet, with the amount of data stored on computer hard drives and portable storage devices, taking precautions could save you a nightmare or two.
Unexpected power surges, viruses, spilt cups of coffee and simple wear and tear can all cause serious data loss. Laptops are especially prone to accidental knocks that could displace mechanical components and prevent you from getting to vital information.
You need to determine the importance of your data - e.g. databases, client files, financial spreadsheets, correspondence, orders and emails, not to mention those once in a life time photographs – your daughter’s wedding, baby’s 1st birthday, holidays ….
If losing all this sounds like a nightmare, then you should consider some sort of backup system. Talk to TCS – we will be happy to advise on the type of backup system best suited to your needs.
It could be something as simple as regularly saving your files to a CD/DVD, or running an automated backup to a second hard drive, through to sophisticated tape backup systems. However, even with your backup system in place, unless you monitor and test it on a regular basis you could be in danger of overlooking error messages.
Prevention is better than cure – and a lot of people invest in such preventative measures as virus software, but then fail to keep it updated. New viruses are being created all the time, and anti virus software which has not been updated will not recognise these new viruses. Shared memory (USB) sticks and infected email attachments are two ways in which a virus can enter your computer.
Data retrieval
Please don’t panic if you lose data – there’s usually a good chance that most of the data can be retrieved. However, all too often people make the situation worse by trying to have a go themselves. Often the best thing to do is turn the machine off and contact your IT department or a professional such as TCS which has sophisticated equipment able to recover most data.
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