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When Your Computer Fails: A Disaster Recovery Strategy for the Home-based
Business
By Pamela Bruce
If you are self-employed and work from home, you wear several hats, so
to speak: you may be the marketing manager, accountant, receptionist or
PR person. You are also your own technical support department and therefore
responsible for safeguarding your data.
You should be clear about two things:
1. Sooner or later, disaster will strike. It does not have to
be anything as dramatic as storm, fire or flood - an overheated motherboard,
a malfunctioning hard drive or a computer virus can be enough.
2. The cost of backup hardware and media is trivial compared to the value
of your data. Imagine that you lost your customer list, your product database
or other crucial business data. How would your business continue?
Here are some tips for implementing a disaster recover strategy:
- Buy an external hard drive. These hard drives, which connect
to your computer via the USB 2.0 or FireWire port (check which port
your computer has) have fallen dramatically in price. Some of them are
about the size of a paperback and can be easily transported. Most come
with a backup program that lets you schedule automatic backups for your
data.
- Put all crucial computer-related information in a folder. This
includes the customer support numbers of hardware and software manufacturers,
serial numbers, warranty documents and configuration information. The
last thing you want to do is to hunt for these items while you are desperately
trying to get your computer working again.
- Back up data and store the media offsite. Having an external
hard drive is great, but what would happen in the case of theft, flood
or fire? You should regularly (let your calendar program remind you)
back up important data on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and store these elsewhere,
such as at a friend’s house or in a safe deposit box at your bank.
- Back up data online. There are numerous companies that will
store your data online for a fee, but it might even be enough to use
a web-based e-mail service such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, as
these now offer very generous storage quotas. Just mail important files
to yourself.
- Have extra hardware. If your main computer fails, you can just
move the external hard drive to your laptop and continue working. It
might also be useful to keep an old computer around as a backup machine,
as long as it still runs the programs you need to use. This way, you
do not have to run out and buy a new computer right away, if your current
one fails.
Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She is the owner of Love
Beads Unlimited and sells the sterling silver and Swarovski crystal
bead jewelry she designs and creates both in her eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/LOVE-BEADS-UNLIMITED)
and on her website at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com,
where you can also download the free e-book "A Consumer's Guide to
Buying Bead Jewelry Online".
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Bruce
If
you have experienced a loss of data, contact
ACS Data Recovery today. ACS Data Recovery will work with you
each step of the way. We know how valuable your data is, and that is why
we each case gets the same undivided attention.
To
get started, please take a moment to call and speak with one of our friendly
data recovery professionals toll-free at 1-877-646-0546. They will consult
with you and give you a flat-rate price for your recovery, depending on
the type of failure you have experienced. After
you have spoken with a representative, please Complete
Our Data Recovery Request Form. Once you have completed this form,
simply print it out and ship it with your media. It's that simple! Once
we receive the drive, we will evaluate it and give you a call to confirm
the price before we ever start the recovery procedure.
Call
Toll-Free 1-877-646-0546 For A Quote.
We are data
recovery experts, specializing in complex hard drive failures. If
you have a crashed hard drive or you think you have experienced a hard
drive crash, then call us immediately 1-877-646-0546. We provide our hard
drive data recovery services nationwide to a wide variety of clientele
in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois,
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