Contributor Credit: Jesmond - Speedy Adverts - 2004

In today’s world where our computers are vital for the ongoing of our business and daily work it is of vital importance to have a good disaster recovery plan. Backing up your data may not be enough.

Points to consider:

1. In case of hardware failure how long will it take to get your PC repaired / replaced?
· Do you have a maintenance agreement with your hardware supplier?
· Do you have a backup PC ready installed? This may save you time and money! All you will need is to restore your data in this case and be up and running in no time.

2. Is it the operating system that failed?
· Do you have your OS installation CDs?
· Do you have all patches and service packs?
· Do you have all your hardware drivers?
· Do you have installation CDs of all software that you may use?
· And the most important, do you have a backup of your latest data?

3. Backups
· Make sure to take regular backups of your data at regular intervals. Today one can find a lot of inexpensive solutions, like ZIP Drives, CD-Writers, DVD-Writers, Tapes, USB devices, even USB Small Pens which also make your data easily transportable.
· Make sure to make a good backup plan.

Example: You can make 2 sets of 5 CDRWs. Name the CDRWs as follows:

· Set 1 – Monday, Set 1 – Tuesday, Set 1 – Wednesday, Set 1 – Thursday, Set 1 – Friday
· Set 2 – Monday, Set 2 – Tuesday, Set 2 – Wednesday, Set 2 – Thursday, Set 2 - Friday

Now you can easily take a fresh backup, being full or incremental according to your needs on a daily basis for 2 weeks, on the 3rd week you will start overwriting Set 1 again etc …

It is also advisable to take a full Monthly Backup of your data on a separate media, which is to be kept in a safe place, just in case you will ever need to restore some old data.

4. A word of Warning!
· Every now and then restore your data in a temporary directory to check that your data is actually being backed up in order not to get any undesirable surprises in a real life situation.
· If possible make a simulation of how long will it take to put your system up and running again.