In part 1, we reviewed the strategy of having two identical synchronized hard drives.

Today’s strategy is segregating the data on your hard drive. By keeping all your important data in a primary folder hierarchy you’ll be able to manage your important files more efficiently and reduce the risk of overlooking important
information that needs backed up.

You’ll want to make sure that your data is organized in under a single folder (like My Documents) and organize within that folder. For those who don’t know, there are three basic types of software on your computer: the operating system (e.g. Windows), application software (e.g. Word), and data files (the files that that you’ve created and want to protect).

You’ll need to take a look at your application software settings and insure that your data files created in those programs are stored in the folder you want, examples include your Outlook pst file, other Office applications, and your accounting software.

Next weeks post: Using an external hard drive backup.

They tell us that computer technology has revolutionized our life-exponentially increasing productivity, efficiency and profitability! As a member of the first generation raised on a PC in the early 80’s I’m still not convinced. As a matter of fact, I’ve had days in which I was absolutely certain that the PC, Internet, and hand held were not only unproductive, but they were evil beings with no other purpose than to make my life miserable.

In spite of the pain that technology has caused almost everyone at one point or another, there is no escaping the
fact that technology has become an integral part of our life, and an essential part of a successful small business.

Throughout my career in the IT industry, in both the corporate and small business worlds, I’ve accumulated a number of strategies to economically optimize the benefit and minimize the risk of technology for small offices/home offices.

The upcoming posts are my strategies, keep in mind your situation may require additional consideration, but overall I believe that most small businesses can benefit from these basic strategies.

Part 1: Data Loss is Inevitable!

The point here is the mindset, not the scientific validity of this statement (I’d put money on it though). No matter
how nice of dual-core 64bit PC and 20″ wide format LCD display, they are worthless to your business without the data. The data is the life of your business and it’s what you need to protect like a newborn babe.

Easy inexpensive ways to protect your data on a PC:

1. Have two identical synchronized hard drives. This way if one drive fails, you can simply make the second drive your primary drive and boot to it, not losing a step. Ideally the second hard drive should be identical in make and model to your primary drive.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Mirroring. You can purchase a PC with RAID 1 (RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks) capabilities, make sure it’s “hardware RAID 1,” or buy a hardware RAID controller to install in your existing PC. This is the best solution but it will require some technical capabilities to install and is a bit more expensive
   than the next option.
2. Automated Hard drive duplication. Same basic concept as RAID except you buy software that automatically
   duplicates your primary drive to your secondary drive per the schedule you set. The risk you run is losing
   the data between replications, but this risk can be minimized by employing one of the other backup tactics on this page.

I utilize the software duplication option for my personal home office system. I’ve used Casper XP for a number of years and have been extremely pleased. I set it to replicate my primary drive every night so every morning I always have a second identical bootable copy of my primary drive in case disaster should strike.

Next weeks post: Segregating data