You could upload your data to online storage and rely on the storage provider for the safety and privacy of your data, however, if your data is highly sensitive then this is not advisable. A secure and free online backup procedure posted on windows7library.com would provide the necessary security through BitLocker encryption and virtual hard drives. BitLocker is a full volume encryption and system protection feature that is available on computers running the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.

To learn how to create your own secure and free online backup solution go here:
http://www.windows7library.com/blog/bkup/secure-and-free-online-backup-procedure/

Testa cooled down on this business deal. Although he wholeheartedly believed that discounts promised were achievable, he could not get himself to ship his computer together with money without any form of receipt and assurance. He could recall hundreds of cases in which he ultimately ended up benefiting more than was verbally agreed and understood because one sentence was missing from a contract. Two days later Hopper phoned to ask whether Testa was still interested. Testa was not. Deep down our old miser was happy—the use of happy should not be taken literally as Testa did not possess such a gene in his being—that he did not see this transaction through. Hooper and an associate made the news a few years after their exchange with Testa. They were arrested and charged with theft and fraud. They would subsequently be found guilty of having ripped off hundreds of people out of equipment and cash. They would basically hire the services of a secretary, a warehouse and a post office box and would advertise computer-related services in classifieds. Those who replied to the ads would be conned into sending in equipment and cash for upgrades, replacements, servicing, data recovery and more. They would sell received equipment under a separate operation. Clients who called would be delayed until Hopper and his friend disappeared from the scene about 2 to 3 months after they had first remade their debut in an area. Investigators would normally find the usual things one expects in this type of operation; unpaid rent, wages, service and utility bills, cleaned out rooms and a warehouse with bits and pieces of kit that had not made it out of the door in time or which was of no interest.

So much time had passed since the tape had first malfunctioned that Testa forgot—or decided to forget—about the need to take backups. Backups are things you perform frequently and never get to use. Not taking a backup does not prevent a computer from not switching on in the morning nor does it make it malfunction. As a result, it is something one can easily side-line. Besides, not all problems, even those that are apparently critical, require one to seek a backup. For example, when Testa’s computer one morning coughed up a burnt plastic scented smoke and died out, Testa called in TechnoFriend—BuonoTech charged more—and by the time the technician was packing his kit to leave everything was back to normal. Don’t get me wrong, until the data became accessible again, Testa’s pulse was at an all-time high and his blood pressure was short of bursting a vein. He was distraught at the knowledge that he did not have a backup. He knew that without the computer and the information stored on it, his business was at a total loss. It had been years since he or his staff had updated the paper index system that allowed payments to be tracked, expired contracts to be revisited or to be moved to the closed cases section. Testa had implemented internal systems that relied entirely on the computer; his business stopped functioning whenever there was a power failure. Whenever there was a power failure everyone directed their efforts to cleaning and tidying up; if the computer would not be revived they would have all the time in the world to clean and tidy. Testa promised himself over and over again that the backup issue had to be dealt with.

But the moment the all clear signal was heard, life returned back to normal. Testa grumbled at the exuberant bill for the cost to replace a faulty power supply and clean in the fluffed up innards of the computer. As soon as the characteristic hum of the machine could be heard and the usual programs could be invoked, the backup promises reiterated over and over only a few minutes before began sinking into the kingdom of forgottenness. To be entirely accurate, the backup issue didn’t get forgotten, it simply never ever made it to the top of the list to get sanctioned and seen through. A few months after this event, the computer died out again. This time round the computer was declared dead and needed to be replaced. TechnoFriend offered to setup a new system with a tape unit and transfer the data from the old disk to the new computer. Newer versions of the old programs Testa had used would be installed and the programs Testa had written would be compiled on the newer machine. The new system would eliminate the need to file documents as it allowed for electronic signatures. Clients would sign a tablet and the signature would be held within a computer. The new system was faster and more robust although it still required a cool environment. Since Testa’s business had come to a complete standstill as a result of the failed computer, the miser was not able to squeeze as much as he would have liked.

After prices and timings were negotiated, the new system went into operation. It was a leap in technology. Everything ran considerably faster and newer versions of programs had newer functionality that made life simpler. Testa could now backup the data and the new backup system was setup so that it only required that, on a daily basis, someone remove the ejected tape from the night before and push in a tape for that day’s backup.

He did initially take a backup on a daily basis but the habit of not taking a backup seemed to have infected him. One particularly busy day (the business had moved up another notch) he forgot to push in the tape. The next morning there was a warning on the computer that informed him that a backup could not be taken. He acknowledged the warning and everything returned to a norm. The missed backup events appeared frequently and over a considerably short period of time it became a standard procedure that every morning one had to ok the backup warning so that it would go away. His employees would do it if Testa didn’t get to the keyboard first. One day when tinkering on the computer Testa had adjusted the backup software so that it no longer scheduled a nightly backup. Backups would be an on demand thing rather than a programed process. A few weeks after, one of Testa’s employees remarked that the error message that came up every morning had gone away and “now the computer was fixed.” Life was as it should be; profitable and very busy.

One Saturday night a water outlet valve of the air-condition got clogged. This resulted in water seeping out of the unit and trickling down the outside of a pipe that normally expelled condensed water into the street. The pipes ran directly over the computer system. This was one of the designed decisions Testa had insisted upon to keep costs down. Water leaked on the running computer system and onto the UPS. A short in the latter resulted in a small fire coupled with intense black smoke produced when plastic and electronics burn. The combination destroyed the computer, printer and the box of tapes that had infrequently been used to backup the system.
No one knows what this mishap cost Testa. A specialised company had managed to reconstruct portions of the data from the only readable backup tapes against a hefty payment. The tape contained data that was more than 6 months old. While on the outside Testa’s operation went on, he did downsize and his operation was never on the par to what it had originally been. Some might say that he had grown old, but an ex-employee claimed that he lost huge amounts of money when debtor data vanished in the computer disaster. As soon as news of the disaster spread amongst those who owed Testa money certain people began making claims that they had effected payments. Costly and lengthy legal action by Testa against presumed defaulters did not always produce the desired outcome.

After the ordeal, backups became as regular as rain and the media was retained offsite.

Although a second computer shop had just opened in town, Testa decided to visit the shop who had supplied the computer system originally. BuonoTech had expanded to become a retail chain and at the time was still the first name that popped into any one’s mind when they talked or thought about computers. Testa first visited BuonoTech. When he explained the symptoms and reported the error message, he was told that the problem was a hardware failure error. Getting a new set of tapes was not going to solve the problem. He was informed that his system was obsolete and that BuonoTech no longer stocked that model. They could get him tapes if he insisted but since the format was specific to that model they would not take the tapes back if he returned them. They offered him a new tape drive with tapes. The cost of this solution (tape drive unit, tape media and installation) was miles outside Testa’s ‘I’m willing to pay’ scale. Testa argued that if computers had fallen considerably in price, tape units should have followed suit. It made no difference to him that the new tape system was faster and could store more information. This was a rip off. He demanded to see Jack Buono.

Unfortunately Mr. Buono was packed with meetings and it was difficult to speak with him today. If Mr. Norberts could leave his contact details Mr. Buono would contact him as soon as possible. Mr. Norberts left the shop a very angry man. “Had it not been for me, these people would be as penniless as when they approached me to help them out.” he murmured to himself, “That’s the respect I get for helping these people move up society notches”. His number seems to have been misplaced by the person at the counter because Mr. Buono never returned his call.

The second shop, called TechnoFriend, was a small shop owned by a Johann Wang. Johann initially opened the shop for two reasons: he loved technology and he wanted extra income to reinvest into technology. At the time, Johann held a full time job as a night manager in a hotel. He started life as a person with no interest in computers. He had never seen or used a computer. His first formal training on computers had taken place at the hotel about a year before. His hotel had decided to computerise their operation and he was one of the selected few who had received training from BuonoTech. That was his first interaction with technology. He discovered that he was a natural with computers and could solve problems and figure his way out of technological knots with relative ease. Unlike almost all of his peers, he didn’t freeze if an unusual message popped up on the screen. Rather he would actively try to figure out a solution.

Unlike older and younger colleagues who had received the same initial training, he didn’t spend the first and last 15 minutes of every lesson complaining with the tutor that he is too busy or too old or too tired to learn computers. Neither did he bitch that computers were a waste of time and money and that since the introduction of computers mistakes where off the chart, guests were angry and on the whole, things were now worse than they were in the pre-computer days. Johann just absorbed what the tutor had to give.

Others soon discovered that they had a guru in their midst and would call upon him for a solution to their electronic stumbling blocks. Initially, when someone called BuonoTech’s support line at night the person taking the call would ask if Johann was around. If Johann was not working that evening, a lengthy diagnosis would have to be conducted followed by a painfully comprehensive step by step solution to the problem. On the other hand, if the technical support person was lucky enough to learn that Johann was on the premises both understanding what the problem really was as well as describing what should be done to sort it out would be over and done with in the shortest possible time. A few months after the system had been installed, night technical support calls during which Johann was working went down to zero. This was not because they no longer happened but because Johann, after a few more specialised training sessions at BuonoTech, could sort out the problems without escalating the matter.

Johann subscribed to a few computer magazines which he scrutinized from cover to cover and his first big gift to himself was a computer purchased at a reduced price from BuonoTech. This machine allowed Johann more freedom to experiment, tinker and learn and this, in turn, further increased his skill in technology. Less I forget, a few years after this story ends, the TechnoFriend chain consisting of 4 stores was bought out by the BuonoTech mega chain for an undisclosed sum topping 6 digits.

When Testa entered the shop he was greeted by Johann. Testa reiterated his problem and error message and made it clear that he was not interested in being ripped off. The owner was taken aback much less than expected because Testa’s reputation preceded him. After a bit of searching and phoning, Testa was given the same reply as the previous shop. All attempts to end the conversation and get the mister out of the door did not cause the latter to head for the exit.

“There’s nothing we can do”, “I’m sorry you’ll have to look elsewhere”, “Did you try BuonoTech?” and “Sorry I can’t help you” are just a few of the hint lines to end the exchange, but Testa would not leave the shop. Maybe it was Johann’s character, maybe it was the hospitality training he received from his other job, maybe a combination of both but the shop owner could not get himself to tell the mister to “get the hell out of here”. TechnoFriend had developed into a sort of computer club type-shop. This was directly as a result of Johann’s passion for technology. Gurus and geeks would hang around the shop getting the opportunity to play with what was on display, chat with each other, and argue the best technologies around. Some of the regulars put in as much time as Johann and ended up serving potential clients and helping confirmed customers.

At one point, Johann was joined by 2 others in an attempt to explain the benefits of newer backup systems but, yet again it was a waste of time. At the end, Johann had the brilliant idea of how to pass the buck, he fished out one of the many computer magazines he had running all over the place and looked up the classified ads. One ad claimed that the company would solve any computer problem guaranteed. The ad promised that if the company failed on its promise it would pay $100. It listed a PO Box one could write to and a phone number one could call. Johann photocopied the ad, gave a copy to Testa and told him that the circled company might be able to help him. It was probably the longest two hours Johann had spent with a single client in a transaction that did not result in a sale, but somehow he was content that the man had taken his custom elsewhere.

The next day, Testa phoned the company. The lady who answered the phone told him that no one was at the office. He was to leave his details and someone would phone him back upon his return. The promised phone call came at around 4pm. The caller who identified himself as Hopper reassured Testa that they would be able to help “as long as it’s a computer problem.” Testa gave details of the computer system, the tape drive, the symptom observed and the error message. Hopper promised to call the next day. The next day Testa received the call he was waiting for. Hopper did find a replacement unit but it was not worth it. He would like to propose to Testa a new computer system complete with the latest tape unit. He could offer it to Testa at a very special price of 30% off retail. Their company had also found a buyer for his old computer and if Testa agreed that would result in another 25%, 30% if Testa had retained all the disks and documentation that came with the machine. It was great that, in exchange for a few scraps of paper and a few disks, he would be getting an additional 5%. He would be getting a top of the line brand new system complete with tape drive at a staggering 60% off retail. Sure the cost of a few tapes, transport services of both the old as well as the new system, as well as the service charge to transfer the data from the old machine to the new one and to erase the old machine would add around 10% but even at 50% it was a huge bargain. Even though Testa was satisfied at such a phenomenal discount his natural inkling was to try to squeeze this lemon a little bit more. Hopper agreed that everything would be done at 55% discount although Testa would have to pay everything up front. Testa wanted to think about it.

Testa didn’t believe in paying overtime. He believed that overtime was there to make people realise that they have the potential to earn more. Besides he was afraid that once a person got a taste of extra income he might ask for a raise rather than be grateful for what he was given. He didn’t believe in part timers because he felt that part timers would have too much time on their hands to seek alternative employment. This made part timers less loyal to the firm. He didn’t believe in employing women because the female sex was, for all terms and purposes, not male. Women might want to get married and might have babies. According to Testa, women had to take care of their family and to shop and to clean the house and this would, in-turn, increase the likelihood that they would need to take all their vacation days and be much more inflexible to working additional hours for free. Besides employing a woman meant that sooner or later one had to invest in facilities necessary with womenfolk. According to Testa, women were of a greater disposition to want to better their environment and try to make their workplace more bearable and enjoyable to work in. They also had a higher cyclic probability of being sick and emotional and, God forbid, become emotionally involved with him. Women were definitely on the do not consider list.

The computer came at a time when the firm’s business had gone up a notch. His two employees were each putting in around 10 unpaid hours a week. As Testa saw it, 5 of the 10 hours came from their lunch break and he could squeeze that out of his dependents without too much complaining. The problem was the remaining 5 hours that had to be done either before their official starting time or by having them stay over after the business officially shut up. Testa also managed to convert most of his employee’s official vacation leave into work days. He did this by making his subordinates understand that there was work to be done and they had to be responsible towards the business which was ultimately their bread and butter. Therefore unless Testa decided that an errand was critical and could not be done outside the extended office hours, his clerks would be refused the request to take the day off. If one was adamant about needing the vacation leave, Testa would make the few days before the off day and one or two days after, a mental torment of humiliating accusations aimed at the person who only wanted some time off. Testa would grumble aloud against the person and would encourage the poor man’s colleague to join in. The co-worker always seemed tremendously eager to join in such discussions that would, more than usual, bash his mate. If an errand could only be done during office hours, the employee would be allowed to get the errand done and return as soon as possible to his desk afterwards. Testa had reached a stage in which he feared that asking for more unpaid time was too risky.

From his interaction with the Buonos, Testa had learnt that computers can be programmed to do certain tasks previously performed by humans. He was hoping that the computer system would be a cheaper alternative to employing a third employee. Testa also felt that juggling three people would be much more difficult and there was a greater risk that those in his employment would suddenly decide to chat amicably amongst themselves and compare notes.

Training was conducted by a junior trainer employed by BuonoTech. He had been employed a few days before and onsite training at Testa was probably his first duty. Although he was not that experienced he was both knowledgeable and eager to please his client (and his boss). The first thing that Testa did was to get the young tutor’s home phone number. After a session, Testa would revise all the work done, work through the documentation, read help files and experiment with the various programs. If Testa encountered what, at first seemed to be an insurmountable problem he would hack at it. If that failed he would call the tutor at home. Saturday, Sunday, evenings never prevented the determined miser from picking up the phone. If the inexperienced tutor did not have an immediate answer or was not at home, Testa would ask to be called back.

At the end of the training the firm had a small database that, within a few months, would hold a record for each transaction the firm held with third parties. Searching and organising information was considerably made more efficient. For example producing a list of people who had defaulted was no longer a task that took someone many hours once a month; thanks to the computer the list could be produced on a weekly base in a matter of minutes. Standard letters would be produced automatically rather than be typed in, one at a time. The computer system brought a reshuffle in the way the firm operated. The clerks would create and update records which Testa would meticulously verify. They would print the letters and do the chasing passing the “black spot” cases for Testa to handle personally. A few months later, additional business systems were computerised. Testa did all the programming work himself.

It is amazing how a person such as our little character could have taken to computers. May be it was because the machine had no soul, no feelings and no emotions? May be it was because it could be made to work, and work and work without the need for silly humanistic traits such as having a cup of tea or needing to go to the bathroom? May be because the computer system had cost Testa almost nothing and was proving to be, overall cheaper than his two employees? May be it was a combination of the above? Testa understood that unless he learned more about the subject he would be at a disadvantage. He had two options, utilise the services of a trainer or teach himself. Engaging a trainer had proved to be a success but unlike the first time, now he would have to pay for the effort. After a few enquiries he concluded that this would prove too expensive. The only way to teach himself was to acquire books on the subject. At the time, the local library did not carry a good selection of computer books. Although more and more people had heard about computers, they were still not sufficiently mainstream to merit their own section. Besides the few titles on the subject were generic and directed towards an introduction to the subject. He was past the introduction stage. This meant that Testa had to purchase the knowledge he sought. After a little bit of research (misers tend to be so good in research) he selected two books. He worked through every page and tried every example. The proof-reader intensity with which he skimmed through the book resulted in his discovering considerable errors in both texts. Since he did not encounter any problems with the first book, he placed the errata page he had created in the book before placing it on a shelve with other literature he owned. With the second book he encountered a few stumbling blocks. He decided that the best way to go about the problem was to write to the author pointing out the errors in the book and then forwarding his problem. It worked.

As the couple made their way into the room Jack begged his wife to calm down as “it was soon going to be over”. The lawyer handed Testa’s paper to Jack and the latter, without really looking at the sheet, agreed to supply the hardware, software and services listed. The lawyer scribbled an addendum to the contract and read it to the interested parties. After confirming that there were no objections, he made 3 copies of the contract for all interested parties to sign. After Testa had scrutinized the cheque and placed it securely in his pocket, he took another pen from the centre of the table, and placed his name on every document that now constituted the end of his business association with the Buono’s. When the last scrap of paper was signed by all parties, Testa got up, placed the pen and his copy of the contract in the inside pocket of his jacket and headed towards the door of the office and eventually towards the exit of the shop.

In the end, this transaction cost the Buono’s much more than they had originally planned but the pain in their pocket was more than counterbalanced by the thought that they had gotten rid of Testa.
A few weeks later Testa received a call from BuonoTech. The caller wanted to enquire when it would be possible to perform a site inspection. Since this was a high end system, staff at BuonoTech would have to inspect the site beforehand to discuss where the computer and terminals would be placed and from there determine any preliminary work that was necessary. After this stage was complete, they would install the computer system together with the acquired software. The appointment was confirmed. On the day and at the agreed time, a couple of guys knocked on Testa’s door. After asking Testa where he would like to house his system they ran through a standard checklist of what had to be prepared beforehand. Electrical points, circuit breakers, air conditioning, floor and desk space and wiring to other peripherals were some of the points listed on the checklist. These had to be ready and operational before the computer could be brought in. What Testa had failed to realise was that these works were not included with the supply of the computer and had to be paid for separately. By only inspecting invoices he had never realised that such critical services were an integral and critical part of every computer installation. The computer brochure had mentioned operating temperatures but he had not really paid any attention to them. When he enquired with one of the technicians why such services were not listed on invoices, Testa was told that, BuonoTech did not perform such functions directly but sub-contracted the works to a company called J & L Maintenance and clients dealt directly with the company. J & L Maintenance was owned by the Buono’s.

When the quote from J & L Maintenance arrived Testa reeled back at the estimate. He phoned BuonoTech and categorically refused to pay so much for such mundane work that anyone could perform. He could get the same work done for a third of the price; probably even less. The person taking Testa’s call informed the miser that J & L staff were specifically trained to perform these installations and that they periodically took exams to retain their license. As a result they followed certain operational procedures and used supplies that were of the best quality. Testa didn’t shift from his initial position. At the end, the manager of the person who originally took the call informed Testa that they had no problem if a third party contractor did the works as long as Testa signed a disclaimer.

After rummaging through his lists, Testa called in a contractor to whom he had lent money. The contractor was a solo operation that specialised in electrical works but did almost any work that came his way. His brother-in-law would help if a job required more than one pair of hands. Planning was not his forte but what he lacked on this front he made up with waves of optimism. Nothing was ever a problem and when something indicated that it wanted to become a nuisance he would patch it up, sometimes literally. But he was cheap. Although the contractor had never designed a computer room before, he didn’t see that being much of an issue. Testa’s instructions to the contractor were simple, keep costs down; and if cutting corners meant that the over cost would be lower than that was ok. The price quoted by the contractor was almost as cheap as Testa had expected.

There were a few mistakes in the design of the computer room and one necessitated that part of the job be redone. The completion of the room was considerably delayed because, on a number of occasions, the contractor would disappear for days on end. But eventually the computer room was ready and a date when the computer would be delivered was agreed. When this day dawned, everything went smoothly and within a few hours the computer was humming quietly in its cool corner. The agreed software was installed and tested to be working without a glitch. The installer demonstrated to Testa how to power on the machine and how to safely switch it off again. To questions about how to use the installed software and operating system the technician explained that in a few days someone from BuonoTech’s training department would be contacting him regarding the on-site training.

Testa employed two people. They were necessary to help manage his activities. Testa had in his employ people who seemed to have given up on life. Mind you, they weren’t suicidal or anything of the sort; they simply had very little expectations of bettering themselves and seemed to have one purpose in life; that of cycling through the sleep-work-eat-work-watch TV routine day in and day out with some slight variation on the weekends and on public holidays. On the few occasions during which Testa discussed employee affairs with them, he made sure they understood that with their lack of education, they would not find any other job. It was their business to ensure that the firm prospered because when it stopped everyone would suffer. Even though their senses seemed to tell their brains that the business was reaping in ever increasing profits, what came out of Testa’s mouth painted an opposite picture. These two employees had been working for Testa since they had left school at the legal minimum age. The first employee had been working for Testa for the past 10 years, while the second employee joined about 6 years after. Testa made sure that there never was any cohesion between his two dependents; he convinced the older employee to be on his guard lest the junior member prove to be better than he was and convinced the junior member to work hard because if anyone had to go it would be the last-in first-out basis unless he proved he was the better man. While on the surface both employees seemed to get along, both would spy and tell on the other whenever there was the opportunity to damage their colleague.

The following checklist of features would give you a head start when looking for a backup solution for your virtualized environment…go here for the full article.

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Backup & Recovery

• One centralized installation provides ESX(i) backup across your entire vSphere environment
• Native cataloging efficiently indexes file metadata for easy search and one-step recovery
• Active Block Mapping reads only active blocks from the image, minimizing backup windows and storage needs
• Distributed processing ensures you avoid impact on host operations by sending VM data through a single, central server
• Backup jobs can automatically refresh to stay current with new VMs as they are added in the environment

Disaster Recovery

• Quick, cost-effective recovery can be done on site or at remote sites
• Easy backup of ESX(i) systems to local repositories and replication ESX systems enables off-site recovery
• Flexibility to combine backup and replication jobs ensures you can meet SLAs for recovery time and point objectives

Physical Protection

• Combination of vRanger and vConverter protects physical systems
• Back up or replication of the virtual images of your physical systems provide cost-effective, bare metal recovery

Application Support

• Image-level backups are compatible also with object-level and application-specific recovery; for example, you can use Quest’s Recovery Manager for Exchange with your vRanger backups for agentless, recovery of email and other Exchange objects
• Native VSS implementation ensures that applications are properly backed up and ready to restore

1. To start the backup utility, go to the Start menu, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Backup
2. The backup main window opens, by default the wizard loads first if this is the first time you are running the utility. I suggest that you uncheck the Always start in wizard mode option.
3. From the backup main window, click the Backup tab
4. From the left-hand side pane, expand your data drive by clicking the + sign and searching through the folders structure find the data you want to back up
5. Select the data by checking the respective check box – I suggest you include the System State check box from time to time as to have a backup of your system important files
6. From the Backup media or file name: Browse button, select the destination backup location- I suggest using removable media such as, a USB drive or a network share if available
7. Click the Start Backup to load the next window
8. From the Backup Job Information window, select the Replace the data on the media with this backup radio button and click the Advanced… button
9. From the Advanced Backup Options window, it is important to select the Verify data after backup check box and click OK - for info about backup types see – Data Backup Types
10. Click the Schedule… button if you want to perform the job later – you are ask to save the options selected and to enter the admin password
11. Click the Start Backup button to initiate the backup job – the Backup Progress window loads and you can click the Report… button to view the status of the backup job
     
    Note: It is important to check the log files for errors – for example, the number of backed up folders and files should match that of the Verify section and the value of the Different: element is 0. By default, all log files are saved in C:\Documents and Settings\’your username’\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data

Full Backup:

For example: A company finds that their data hardly change on a daily basis and decides to perform a full copy (backup job) of their folders and files on a weekly basis. They decided to call this backup job as ‘Weekly Full’ and used a remote storage location as the backup destination. Also, they may want to have a back-storage of four weeks such as, Weekly 1 Full, Weekly 2 Full, Weekly 3 Full and Weekly 4 Full. Then on Week 5 they start again from Weekly 1 as to rotate their backup job over four weeks. With this strategy they can go back to weekly restores to a maximum of four weeks.

Incremental Backup: Only the files which have been modified or created on the day are backed up. This method is very fast and consumes little storage space; however, it is best to incorporate a regular full backup with this method!  The restore operation is more complex as all the backups have to be restored in the correct sequence. Some backup systems refer to this method as a daily backup. An incremental backup resets the archive bit.

For example: The company requirements have changed and now they have files that are updated on daily basis. It was decided that apart from the weekly full backups, a daily incremental backup is introduced. While the weekly full backups are performed on a Saturday, the daily incremental were labeled as follows: Inc Mon for Monday’s, Inc Tue for Tuesday’s, etc.

Differential Backup: Only the files which have been modified or created since the last full backup are backed up. This method uses the previous full backup as a reference point and any file that has changed or was created after that reference point is backed up. A daily differential backup does not reflect on any previous differential backups but only on previous full backups. So, Friday’s daily differential would be larger than Monday’s. However, the restore operation is faster and simpler than the incremental as only the latest differential and full backups are needed. A differential backup does not reset the archive bit.

For example: The company wanted to restore 3 files that were updated on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The restore request was done on a Friday morning and hence, they had to search the 3 (Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday) incremental backups and perform a lengthy restore operation. As a result it was decided that the daily backups are changed to differentials and will be called Diff Mon, Diff Tues, etc. Then a restore operation for the same 3 files would only require the latest differential backup.

• Backup medium – The destination backup medium depends on the size of the data being backed up. For smaller amounts of data a low capacity removable drive such as, Pen or Zip drive may be adequate. As the data size increases, you need to have large capacity drives such as, USB external hard drives and for medium to large organizations; a tape drive is usually the backup medium.
• Location of the backup medium – The backed up data needs to be held in a safe and secure place. With safe location I mean away from fire or water and dangerous materials. For example, backup tapes are damaged by magnetic fields. Remember that sound speakers contain magnets and produce such fields! With secure location I mean a place that stop burglars from stealing the medium. Ideally, the medium is password protected in case a burglar manages to steal your data would find it difficult to recover it! Another important factor is to store the medium in a location away from your live data – an off-site storage location.
• Frequency of backups – is how often you perform data backups. This depends on how much your data undergo changes and/or major events such as, updating an application or an operating system. A home user may perform a backup once a week while an organization most probably performs daily backups.  While a home user may be better off with a weekly full backup that overwrites the previous week, an organization needs to implement a full – incremental/differential strategy that spans over a month or more.
• Number of generations to be kept – As an added safety you can keep a number of previous backups before overwriting them with new backup jobs. Although, this might be too expensive in terms of storage costs for home users, an organization would typically keep daily backups for a week, weekly backups for a month and monthly backups for a year.  Also, this may be more complicated with tougher law and regulatory requirements. 
• Testing the backup jobs with a recovery exercise - one of the most forgotten and neglected factors is to test that the backed up data is actually there! It would be a nightmare to lose a hard drive and your data due to a virus or a fault but it would be catastrophic to discover that your magnetic tapes that were supposed to store the backed up data were in fact blank! A planned recovery procedure must be done on regular basis to ensure that your backed up data can be effectively restored :)

A typical example which many authors refer to when explaining data deduplication is the email attachment scenario. Although, as a concept this example will help the readers understand better data deduplication, I would like to point out that data deduplication mechanisms do not generally operate at file level. For the sake of completeness, the example goes that the same email attachment may be present in many email messages; however, only one copy of it is stored during the backup or archive process. A simple task that can be done with a less processing hungry mechanism than data deduplication.

Data deduplication looks within files to find unique blocks of data and then computes a hash algorithm such as MD5 or SHA-1 to generate a unique number for each block. Each unique number is then stored in an index. When files are updated, only the changed data is saved. That is, only the changed blocks or bytes are saved. In practice, data deduplication is combined with other mechanisms such as, delta differencing as to achieve better and safer use of the storage space.

Some benefits of data deduplication:

• Data deduplication offers lower storage space requirements and hence, saves you money on hardware (disks & tape ) and/or remote storage location costs.
• May provide better recovery times in Disaster Recovery situations if well planned.
• Most importantly, data deduplication reduces the data that must be sent across the Internet for remote or online backups.

1. The application or wizard allows you to set verification of a backup job – tick the verify check box
2. Enable logging features – make sure you know the log files location
3. The application allows you to encrypt backed up data with a password if your destination location is a remote storage host or removable media such as, pen drives – dual password entry text box
4. Enable job status features such as, completion reports – check for failures or warnings

If these options are not presented to you in the application wizard then go and look for them before you start the job. Although, the verification mechanism was more intended to verify data integrity when backing up to tape media, it is still a useful check for all kind of media.

Another important task that I recommend you to perform from time to time is a restore test operation. Select a previous backup set and perform a restore operation to an alternate location (if you restore to the original location, remember you would overwrite your recent files with older ones). After a test restore operation check that the restored files are not corrupted such as, opening a word document or spreadsheet and verify that the data is complete and accessible.

Choose where to save your backed up files. It is highly recommended to use an external drive or CD/DVD media :)

 5.  Choose the files and/or folders that you want to backup or better use the default option if your not sure - Let windows choose.

6.  Set up a backup schedule from the Change schedule link.

7.  Finally click Save settings and run backup.

 If you’ve created a backup before, you can wait for your regularly scheduled backup to occur, or you can manually create a new backup by clicking Back up now.

Click Back up files button

Alternatively, you can create a complete backup of your entire computer by clicking the Back up computer button and follow the simple wizard :)

 Traditionally, corporations’ senior management main concerns were that the business data must be safely backed up, verified and some off-site policy was in place, given that the costs were affordable! IT staff main concerns were that ALL data is backed up and backup jobs ended with a success status. Some advanced features such as, retention and recovery points were added to the backup policies. The result of such concept without investigating the data being backed up required that enough storage media is available to handle the entire data size no matter how long the backup process would take.

 Is this concept valid to-day? Do we actually need all the data? Does our data change on a daily basis? Is the backup administrator knowledgeable about the importance of the data being backed up? Is it feasible to use storage space for data that will never be retrieved back?

 The way forward with data backups is the involvement of all stakeholders of the respective data. Data belongs to its rightful owner. A regular exercise should be in place where an IT staff or manager invites every Data Owner (the actual user/employee owning a particular data) to review what should be backed up, for how long the backed up data is required and the acceptable loss of data time-frames in cases of system failures. For example, take an employee that downloads various articles, research material and other documents on a daily basis to create a report or a business case, etc. Apart, from the legal issues a sound conversation with this employee would conclude that whatever report he/she is creating will be the only file needed to be backed up.

 Data owners are responsible for their own data while backup administrators are responsible for the service they are rendering to them. A good backup policy is one that makes the employees aware that they own the data and they should verify that their data is safely and securely stored. Such a policy would clearly explain that users should inform the IT/backup administrators with their backup requirements. On the other hand, a sound policy would include that the IT/backup administrators check with Data owners on regular basis depending on the business type to verify that those requirements are still valid.

 Another valid point would be to publish a document within the company such as, on a secure intranet with brief details about the data being backed up, retention times and other options that do not disclose any sensitive data.

 Briefly, Data owners are the only people to decide which data within their environment is to be backed up, for how long it should be kept and the acceptable loss of data time-frames. Also, they should initiate and terminate a backup request by informing the backup administrator while the backup administrator should review the Data owner requirements on regular basis.