Backing Up Data - Current Best Practices

[JohnH]

This might be a good time to discuss off-site backup practices and what works, especially for small offices. We've had these discussions before and I'm just curious what the latest thinking is, especially since backup hardware & technology gets cheaper by the day.

This year I just kept two flash drives on lanyards in my car and would alternate them each day during tax filing season. Once day I'd back up on the flash drive marked "Odd" and the other day I'd back up on the flash drive called "Even". I'd set up a new folder for each day in order to force ATX to back up all client records anew, and then begin deleting the oldest folders when the flash drive began to fill up. It's fast & efficient, and easy to work into the daily routine. Each of the flash drives is password protected and is dedicated only to tax info.

I'd like to hear how others handle their off-site backup process in an effort to determine a "best practices" for small offices that don't have huge IT budgets or special computer expertise.

[OutWestTax]

This is one of those areas I get on a soapbox for: Here's my plan.

My main computer uses mirrored drives in a RAID 1 configuration. What that means is that everything is written to two identical drives at the same time. If one dies, the other will notify me, then continue to operate without interruption.

I do a similar routine for nightly backups except I recommend two external hard drives. That way I can back up the entire system. Most external drives now come with backup software that manages the original backup then backs up only the changed files each night. Takes about ten minutes and that's when I check this forum while it's running. Like you, those go home with me and rotate.

It's not just for disaster either. Last time I needed a backup, I needed to retrieve a earlier version of a file. Hooked up the external drive, selected a backup made two weeks earlier, restored the file, and away we go!

Which brings up a point: Test the backup restore cycle with a dummy file. I've seen clients happily running backups each night (especially to tape) that were not working. I had one client whose last good backup was 2 1/2 months ago. I spotted the problem before disaster hit, but you gotta test your backups. Doing a actual restore of a file is the acid test.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

Backup is pretty easy. The risk is relative. Once you determine your risk, you can figure out how to meet it. If you are willing to retype/recreate everything, you never have to backup. If you are willing to retype/recreate only an hour's worth of work, backup every hour.

Besides odd/even, use a rotation of weekly/monthly backups as well. This is in case you discover an issue which would not be repaired by using your odd/even items.

Testing is critical. Having backups is pointless unless you can use them. Pretend you have lost everything and have to start over. See if you can. Cheaper to try it before needed. Test recover from scratch at least once a year.

If you are on a LAN, setup a folder on several other computers that everyone uses for backup storage. We have 3 machines in this office. We all make regular backups which get copied onto each computer. The odds are a normal failure will be computer based and recovery is a matter of moving to a different machine until the other machine is fixed/replaced.

One part often missed is a real disaster. What if you had to start over at a new site with no access to your previous site/equipment? (Fire, earthquake, other disaster.) An offsite backup is the only salvation. I rotate CD's at home, have a backup on a web site (hosted in another part of the country), etc. Mailing a rotation to a different weather/geographic area is probably ok as getting it back by mail is not a bad delay in most cases.

How about internet access? If your main access goes down, can you move somewhere to get going again?

Can you reinstall your critical applications?

Do you have all your passwords memorized or written and stored somewhere?

How about a phone system failure? Call forwarding can be accomplished by a call to the phone company (they can do it on the fly, especially if you have a business line).

Power issues? A power inverter for your car and a long extension cord can be used to keep you going for quite some time, especially if you have a laptop you can use. Do you have a hardwired phone you can use? Wireless phones need power...

Part of what is on our site:

(Disk can be a floppy, RW, Flash, whatever)

===

This rotation uses a total of 11 "disks", plus a "permanent disk" at the end of each year.

Four "daily disks" labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (Friday is covered by the weekly disk.) At the end of each day, backup on to the appropriate disk.

Three "weekly disks" labeled Weekly 1, Weekly 2, and Weekly 3. (The fourth and fifth weeks are covered by the monthly disk.) At the end of each week, backup onto the appropriate disk.

Use a rotation of four monthly disks labeled Monthly 1, Monthly 2, Monthly 3, and Monthly 4.

Monthly 1 gets used at the end of Jan, May, and Sept

Monthly 2 gets used at the end of Feb, Jun, and Oct

Monthly 3 gets used at the end of Mar, Jul, and Nov

Monthly 4 gets used at the end of Apr and Aug. (Dec is covered by the yearly disk)

Make a "permanent" backup at the end of each year.

This backup method gives you multiple backups to choose from should you ever need them. If you do not discover an error for two months, you will still have the data from two months ago to reuse.

If you spend less than an hour a day making entries, you can consider skipping daily backups.

[MAMalody]

I am not against testing backups, however, I don't see a way to test Mozy. I am assuming if I lose my system and need to recover, their system will do that for me. Am I wrong here?

Mike

[JohnH]

Outwest: Excellent recommendations. One of the reasons I started this string is because I'm thinking about going to a dual external hard drive. If you were buying right now would you buy the same one you have, or is there a particular brand/size/etc you'd opt for currently?

Medlin: I like your summary. Lots of challenging questions & comments. One little tidbit I could have used a few weeks ago when a power transformer blew on my street. I gathered up some work & went home to finish a few hours of critical work. Had I thought about it, I could have hooked up an extension cord to the power inverter already sitting in my car and finished the project before leaving. (I park right in front of my office). Sometimes the simplest & most elegant solutions escape us.

Both of you point out one major lapse in the backup schemes many of us employ - I have not actually done a dry run with my backup drives on a long time. It's time to do that very soon.

[TAXBILLY]

I backup every day to a tape drive. Works for me.

taxbilly

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

Tapes are good - as long as your replacement computer can read them. Sometimes the tape drive fails or the new computer has no bay for the tape drive. Make sure to have the tape drive software available too. (Been there.) The thing that bothers me about tapes is they are not common. What I mean is you don't normally see a computer ready for purchase at a local super center or office supply with a tape drive in them. I want to be able to walk up and buy a ready to go computer any time I need one. Yes, you can likely swap the tape drive to the new computer, but what if the old computer is stolen or damaged? CD's and DVD's are so cheap now that I don't even use RW disks anymore. CD/DVD's are not bothered by water, soda, food, wrinkling, tearing, etc. I had this one tape drive that I had to remember to clean before use as the end of tape sensor was worn and would rip the tape off the spool often.

Other backup type things I do:

I can't say it enough, whatever media you are using for backup, make sure to use multiple copies. One tape or disk is not enough. Three is probably not enough either. Five or six is adequate, eleven is getting there. (Rotation patterns are available from many sources.) Once you get a good rotation, test at least a couple times a year.

We have a cable internet connection here. At home, I use DSL. Not likely both will go down at same time (I live about 2 miles away). The DSL also comes with dial up access which I have preset and tested both at home and work. I test the dial up the last working day of each month.

My cell phone can be used to access the internet as well. Verizon allows 14.4k access with all plans (you have to search for the info). Connects to laptop through USB. Slow (I still remember putting phone set in cradle for 300bps if lucky), but useful enough for e-mail and processing orders. Both laptop and phone can run off power inverter.

In CA, we have had rolling power brown outs in the past. Interestingly, work is on a circuit that is exempt, as well as my home location. For home offices, if you have anyone residing there with medical needs (needs power for medical equipment), make sure the power company knows. Your circuit may be removed from the brown out rotation.

When I get a new computer, the old hard drive gets put in the new computer as a second drive. I make a copy of the entire old drive on the new drive, reformat the old drive, install an OS on the old drive, then copy back the info from the new drive. I leave the old drive running and use it for backup. Not quite a hot swappable system, but with a few commands, I can boot from the other drive if needed.

[OutWestTax]

Medlin must have seen much trouble, he's a the type that will wear both belt and suspenders to keep his pants up.

So there was the client that was backing up his stuff each night. One day, the hard drive crashed in his auto body shop. "Got my new computer" he said, "could you restore my accounting?" as he handed me a single floppy. Folks, there was no way that 3 1/2 years of accounting was on one floppy. Long story short, Fedex delivered his old crashed drive to a data recovery service, they pulled the one accounting file off and sent back on a CD. Only cost three days and $1245 .

Real incentive to backup and test.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

Belt & 'spenders - I confess. Wore them before but for special use (race car pit crew, lots of stuff to carry on a belt / in pockets - scrambling around car is not the time to have pants fall).

There are those who have lost data - and those who will soon.

Not so much my own trouble (I learned pretty fast the first time I had a problem), but I get far too many (one is too many) support calls from people who have no backup, one backup which has nothing of value or was from the 1900's, and some that wonder why our software does not "send" data back to us to keep for them!

I read something not too long ago about hard drives more than 3 years in use can have a very high risk of failure. As computer improvements sort of slow down compared to what we need (less rush to get the latest/fastest) more people may be using older computers.

I don't necessairly do all the things I mentioned on a daily basis. I have done all of them at some point. For me, backing up source code and being able to recover it is my financial survival (the kids seem to like eating on a regular basis). Second would be internet access (web site, tech support, credit card processing, etc.). Voice phone is third.

It is all about risk level. Until you test a recovery situation, it is hard to be accurate with your personal risk level (meaning how much time/effort are you willing to put into recovery assuming you can even recover).

Work wise, our software has easy to use backup methods which keeps the last 20 backups automatically - because end users mostly think one backup is enough. We also make an automatic backup at program close (keep the last 20 sets of these as well) in case there is a power outage.

When asked by a customer, I describe backing up as backup as often as you are willing to spend retyping. In other words, never backup if you don't mind starting from scratch. Backup monthly if you don't mind reentering a month's worth of data. Backing up (at least our software's data files) takes SECONDS. Backing up every 20 minutes is not a time waster, and gives you a chance to refocus your eyes for distance and stretch a little.

Personally, I don't backup more than once a day. I code pretty slow (meaning way more time thinking and planning than typing), and yes, a couple of times in 25 years I have had to Groundhog Day due to computer/power issues, not enough to worry about backing up more often.

The one part of this topic I am leaving untouched is privacy/security. I'll leave it up to others to decide how backing up may put client data at risk and the means to attempt adequate security.

[JohnH]

I decided to resurrect this string as my thoughts are turning to the subject just before tax season and I'm thinking there may be others in the same situation.

Just wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a particular brand of portable backup drive that they recommend. I'm thinking that it would be easier to learn from the experience of others than to reinvent the wheel. So what brands & features are most important for someone who wants to basically back up as much of the hard drive as possible as rapidly as possible, using two portable backup drives that are alternated daily?

Currently I'm looking at the Maxtor One-Touch Mini, 100GB drive on sale at Office Max for $99 each and would really like to know if anyone has experience with it (good or bad) to pass on.

[BulldogTom]

There are those who have lost data - and those who will soon.

I worked for a company that had a religeous backup proceedure. It was done every night, and in the morning, the tape would be removed and put in a box on top of the server. When the building was burning, the accountant who devised this brilliant plan asked the plant manager to run into the fire and get them. Because he was having an affair with her, he was willing to try. The owner stopped him from going into the building just before the roof fell in. This is a true story. I was hired a few months after the fire and the firing of the accountant.

Try getting your AR recreated when you have to rely on the customer to tell you how much they owe you. Try fighting a vendor when they insist you have not paid an invoice and you don't have any records to show you paid. Try working with your bank to to get copies of all the checks that cleared (those service charges for back statements and front and back copies of checks start adding up in a hurry). And worse of all, try filing your quarterly and year end payroll returns with no records. Oh yeah, this was a farming operation with over 600 employees, most with "questionable" documentation. Those who had their last paystubs actually got a fairly accurate W2. The IRS was kind enough to waive the penalties for the late filing of the returns.

I make a data cd of all returns, QB company files, and all my documents every night during the tax season, and once a week or so in the off season. CD-R's go on sale for about $5 per 50 every once in a while, and I buy a couple of spindles when they do.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[kcjenkins]

There is no way to have too much backup. Multiple sources is the best, I back up to flash drives, as well as to another computer, and also to CD's. The flash drives are rotated, so that I have 4 backups back. I also check that the files are good, by plugging the stick into my home computer and pulling in files and opening them. I use a different drive Mon through Thursday, then back up to a CD on Friday. And to the second computer every night.

I'm planning on getting a removable drive, to use at least once a week, but for now the flash drives are an easy and economical alternative.

[taxtrio]

I decided to resurrect this string as my thoughts are turning to the subject just before tax season and I'm thinking there may be others in the same situation.

Just wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a particular brand of portable backup drive that they recommend. I'm thinking that it would be easier to learn from the experience of others than to reinvent the wheel. So what brands & features are most important for someone who wants to basically back up as much of the hard drive as possible as rapidly as possible, using two portable backup drives that are alternated daily?

Currently I'm looking at the Maxtor One-Touch Mini, 100GB drive on sale at Office Max for $99 each and would really like to know if anyone has experience with it (good or bad) to pass on.

I'm using one on each of my computers, work fine... easy, economical.

[Nicole]

Just a small tip of what to backup...

If you are not doing a complete backup of the folder your program is in or your entire harddrive, then make sure you are backing up the following items.

- Your returns (whether it's exported returns or backed up returns)

- The Database folder

- The Masters folder

This way if something happens to your backup returns, you will have your database files. You will need the Masters folder in order for the database files to work correctly.

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

Thanks, Nicole. I'm don't think that I was backing up the masters.

Bonnie

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

And while you are thinking about it, take a few minutes to restore the files to a temporary filder and see if you can open them. It will give you a little peace of mind, or at least a chance to change your backup procedures before restore is needed.