As a computer owner are you familiar with a remote data backup service? If you consider the data stored on your computer’s drive to be important then it really doesn’t matter if your a small or large business or home user. In all cases you want access to information backups so that in case of loss you could restore the needed data from the remote storage in a timely and consistent manner. This article will focus on different information back up techniques available in the market today including the remote data backup service.
Posts Tagged ‘Backups’
Remote Data Backup Service – A Guide
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Separation is Critical to Your Backup Strategy
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009Daniel Jones is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular Amazon S3 based online backup service — Back2zip. This article available at http://free-backup.info/separation-is-critical-to-your-backup-strategy.html
Thinking about Backup during a Recovery
For some reason, most people don’t seriously consider forming a backup strategy until they have experienced a significant data loss. A this point they are willing to consider all sorts of methods to protect them from data loss, but are quite put out that the new backup strategy will not help them recover what has been lost.
Failed Backup, a Double Disaster
The only thing worse then having to restore to your backup after a data loss is finding out that your backup has failed as well. This is why most experts advise your backup strategy include multiple backups and backup methods with a degree of separation between them. Without well separated and multiple backups you will often find the same issue that took down your live data will effect your backup as well.
Three Types of Backup Separation
In order to limit the number of single points of failure that can take down all your backups, it is important to separate your backup strategies in three ways. First and most obvious is the location of your backup media storage. Having a the library of backup data tapes in your server room may be convenient, but it does you little good when the fire that destroys the original also destroys your library. As many people find to their dismay, fireproof safes are often not. At a very minimum you should store copies of your backup tapes offsite and update the offsite backups regularly.
The second type of separation is method. In our previous example, storing copies of your tape backup offsite is a good first step, but if your tape backup software or hardware fails you would still be left with multiple copies of a failed backup. A more secure alternative would be to mix they backup methods, for example a local copy of your tape backups, with an offsite online backup.
With this strategy, even if the online, or tape backup were to fail due to problems with the internet connection, or other software/hardware issues, their is an excellent chance that the other backup will still be available.
The third and final type of separation we will discuss is that of time. A common problem with failed backups is that when the backup is taking place, one of the files that needs to be backed up is locked, or in use. The ideal cure for this is to monitor your logs and reports and schedule the backup to occur at a time when the task locking the file is not running. In the real world however, this is not always possible.
Since we discussed the importance for multiple backups in the previous paragraph, just make sure that their is a significant difference in time between the two backups. This gives us a better chance that one of the two backups will pick up the problem file. Despite this you still need to pay close and daily attention to your logs and reports.
Getting Started: Making Backups of Your CDs
Thursday, June 4th, 2009James Fohl is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the best online backup software — Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/getting-started-making-backups-of-your-cds.html
Getting Started: Making Backups of Your CDs
Whether you own a collection of music CDs, video games, or just CDs filled with various forms of media, you know that they are not indestructible, and thus you need to make backups of them.
Your CD collection is a pretty big investment. Just look at how much money you spent on each of your music CDs, and each piece of computer software. From all of this money, don’t you think you deserve to create backups of your investments?
Let’s look at your investment. The average music CD is priced at fifteen dollars, while most commercial video game CDs can cost a price of fifty dollars. Now look at what CDs are. They are not the most durable things in the universe, as they can easily get scratched, smashed or destroyed.
Thankfully with the advent of the many wonderful cd burners available to consumers, the ability for users to backup their collection of CDs is now. The only major requirements for making backup copies of your CDs are that you have a CD writer / burner, blank CD-R discs, and a software application designed to help users utilize their CD burners.
If you intend to make backup copies of your music CDs, be sure to use CD-R media and not CD-RW discs, otherwise you may run into some compatibility problems with your music CD player.
Remember that is is important that when you are making backup copies of your music CDs that you do not use CD-RW discs. The reason for this is because CD-RW discs are somewhat different than regular CD-R discs, and are not readable in most music CD players. While new CD players now have the ability to play CD-RW discs, if you are unsure whether your player allows you to play CD-RW discs, then it is best to just use regular CD-R media.
The equipment needed to make backup copies of your CDs is very inexpensive. CD burners can be purchased well under $50 for an entry unit, and packs of fifty or more CD-R discs can be had for less than $20.
Almost every new computer sold today ships with a CD writer / burner installed. If your computer does not have a CD burner, you can visit your local computer store and purchase an entry level drive for under fifty dollars. Blank CD-R media is ultra cheap, and if you shop around you will be able to find large spindles of blank discs for a very low sum of money.
Once you have the CD burner, the discs you wish to backup, and the blank CD-R media, you will have to get software that allows you to make copies (backups) of CDs. While a lot of CD burning software exists, it is highly recommended that you use a software package that is devoted entirely to duplicating cds.
Some of the best choices for duplicating CDs are the utilities found within the Nero CD Burning Suite, and a small shareware application called BlindWrite, which was given four out of five stars in a editor’s review at Download.com
Remember that you are entitled to create backup copies of your CDs, no matter if they are software or music CDs. Please also keep in mind that it is not legal to redistribute these backup CDs to your friends, co-workers, etc.
Which Online Data Backup Service Is Right for You
Monday, June 1st, 2009Online backup is the best way to take regular backups of files and data from the server and your computers. It is a routine that should be done.
Keep Your Games Alive: Ps2 Backup
Monday, May 25th, 2009Walter Stevens is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular Amazon S3 based Online Backup software — Back2zip. This resources is also available at http://free-backup.info/keep-your-games-alive-ps2-backup.html
The Importance of PS2 Backup
Ps2 backup is an important thing. The prices of games are high, 40, 60 even 80 dollars for a single video game. And we all know how easy it is to damage a video game so that it is no longer playable. No one wants to have to spend another 80 dollars in order to purchase a video game that they already own. Thus, if you backup your PS2 games you can ensure that you will always have a copy of your PS2 games, even if they are badly scratched, warped, or whatever other damage may befall them.
You can even keep your original copy in reserve and play only on your backups, this will keep the original safe from harm’s way.
How to Backup Your PS2 Games
In order to backup your PS2 games, you will need either a CD or DVD burner. While it is possible to backup your games onto a CD-R, this process requires extreme compression of the game files and is not the safest way to backup your PS2 games. It is a difficult process, and might be difficult to make work for your backup needs, although this method is less expensive. If you have a DVD burner, however, it is far easier to backup your PS2 games onto a DVD-R, as PS2 games themselves are written on DVDs.
You will also require special software in order to burn your PS2 games, however, as PS2 is a slightly different format than a normal DVD. One excellent program is DVD Wizard Pro, which has a special feature included that allows you to burn your PS2 games. The actual process is very simple once you have the required program, as you simply need to write the data from your PS2 onto a DVD burner.
Mod Chips and PS2 Backup
In order to play your backup games on your PS2 machine, however, you will require the use of what is called a mod chip. This is a special chip that you must actually install onto your PS2 console. In order to protect against piracy, manufacturers of the PS2 have put special encoding into the PS2 to protect against what is seen as illegal games so that they cannot be played on your PS2 machine.
However, this program goes cannot distinguish between an illegal copy and your own legal backup of your PS2 game. In order to circumvent this, you must install a mod chip onto your machine. Mod chips are available online, costing between 20 and 30 dollars, and you can install it onto your machine yourself. Once you do this, you will be able to play your backup games with ease.
The process is somewhat complicated, though, and you will want to make sure that you know what you are doing before you install your chip, as you do not want to damage your machine and make it inoperable at all. Your mod chip will come with installation instructions, and there are also web sites online which can assist you in this matter.
