by *** ONLINE BACKUP SERVICE ***
We're pleased to offer a secure ONLINE BACKUP service as part of the ClinicOffice Support Plan. There is a small one-off setup fee of £20+vat after which the service is FREE for customers on the Support Plan (for up to 1Gb space).
However, even if you use this service with us, we still strongly recommend that you implement at least one other backup strategy to run alongside it.
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It's always a stressful time when you suffer a hardware failure, have a computer stolen, or suffer some other catastrophe resulting in the loss of data which is vital to your business.
This is where backups come in!
Unfortunately, some of our customers who have found themselves in the above situations have either never made a backup, or have done so only intermittently (and the backup data is out-of-date) or they have backed up onto the same computer that was stolen or crashed (rather than using an external device).
This is a pretty dire situation to find oneself in, which is why taking regular backups is essential.
So what do you recommend?
Our recommended backup strategy is :-
[1] to backup your data every day
[2] to use external media (e.g. a USB drive, external hard disk, zip disc, CD, tape drive etc.)
[3] to 'rotate' your backups by using more than one piece of media/external device (You can get more information about 'rotational backup strategies' here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_rotation_scheme)
[4] to keep the external media at a different location
A backup solution need not be expensive. Most modern computers are already equipped with a CD Writer. If you were to buy a pack of 5 Re-Writable CDs (also called CDRWs), label them Monday through Friday and simply backup your important files to the corresponding CD at the end of each day (not forgetting to take the CDs home with you), then you have a pretty decent backup strategy in place![2] to use external media (e.g. a USB drive, external hard disk, zip disc, CD, tape drive etc.)
[3] to 'rotate' your backups by using more than one piece of media/external device (You can get more information about 'rotational backup strategies' here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_rotation_scheme)
[4] to keep the external media at a different location
(Please note that CDRW integrity may degrade over time when constantly being re-written, so it would be a good idea to buy a new pack of CDRWs every few months.)
Microsoft Windows XP lets you burn information to CD, even if you don't have any CD-Burning software installed on your computer. Please see :-
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306524
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Whichever backup method you choose, the important thing is to do it regularly. In the event of a disaster, you will probably lose all data going back to your last backup. If you took a backup yesterday then it won't be the end of the world, whereas if you haven't backed up for a couple of months - then it may seem like it!
Please feel free to post a message here if you want any further advice on backing up, but please also note that we can only offer general advice about hardware/software backup solutions.
If you need specific help on setting up a good backup system for your business, it may be best to speak to a local computer company who can come in and implement it for you.
