Requirement: All customers
who wish to receive services where valued information is to be managed by Apex
Information Services---must have a complete backup.
No data specific services will be provided
until valued data is first backed up and the backup is validated.
No exceptions.
If a backup system is not in place, services
are available to attain a backup system.
If customer has multiple computers, a
dedicated file server and tape backup---No data specific services will be
provided until backup is validated and there is a documented backup and restore
procedure of which is current.
Data Specific Services: Home Users
-
Customer asks: "Could you please cleanup old files from my computer."-
The software on my
computer is corrupted and the Windows XP or Mac operating system needs to
be re-installed. Please help me and do not lose my information.
-
I need help transferring files from my old
computer to my new computer.
-
Have accumulated over the years large collection of
music, video and photos---what do I do to backup and best manage?
The above examples are common requests for home users.
More hard disk space is needed and old files are not.
The software is corrupted and requires a procedure to
restore all software at the PC to factory original condition.
A new computer is purchased and information needs to be
copied from the old to the new computer.
Most business customers have a backup of all critical data at a dedicated
file server, although nearly every home user does not backup all data.
Today, nearly all home users have information on their computer which they
value.
In particular, digital photos, music and video are of interest as this
type of information consumes the most hard disk space. Other valued
data typical to a home user now are as follows:
-
Quicken, QuickBooks, TurboTax, other financial data -
Word, Excel, E-mail messages and contact
information.
-
Internet Favorites (saved links to websites).
The list goes on, yet the above are the most common.
For some applications such as when using MSN Explorer
or Outlook Express, the data files are hidden from the user and fragmented
into separate folders on the hard disk drive.
Any customer who requires services of which are "Data
Specific", must have a 100% copy of the hard disk drive at their PC to a
separate hard disk drive or tape.
If you are generating valued libraries of photos, music and video at your
computer, seriously consider investing in a backup system or face
permanent loss of information.
Music, Video and Photo Collection--Best Home Setup
Best home setup of multimedia PC includes lowering costs and providing
functionality in practical manner.
What is overkill yesterday, is underpowered for standard use today.
Everyone wishes for the simplest and easiest to use setup.
Minimum Setup at PC:
1.) Mid-market PC of which has at least two internal hard disk drives. The
term "Mid-Market" means--not top of the line and not bottom of the line
priced PC. Most computers are not shipped with two internal hard
drives yet can be upgraded.
2.) External backup hard drive of which has at least twice the storage
capacity of the second internal drive at PC.
With this, home setup:
a.) All data including documents, music, video and photos are saved to the
second internal hard drive. This second hard drive is dedicated for
storing data...efforts are made not to save any information to the C:
drive.
b.) If operating system fails, operating system and applications
(recommend Ghost 12 or later backup software) can be restored without the
need to restore data back to C: drive---AN IMPORTANT POINT!
and---performance is enhanced as file transfer operations are distributed
across two hard drives. A data restoration of a large
multimedia collection back to the C: drive can require hours to
complete---these days, who has the time for this anymore!? Helpful
also when moving to a new PC or Mac as all data is centrally located an
not mixed with thousands of operating system files fragmented across a
tired hard drive.
Go for the Gusto!
NOW--If you wish to do more...such as: Heavy video editing and in
particular----where you will be frequently transferring relatively large
video files---further upgrades with respect to number of hard disk drives
and/or an additional PC or Mac can be required for practical use.
This is the power max user setup where again, a second or even third PC
can help where one PC is dedicated to multimedia use only and not used for
anything else.
Very few folks I have found go this route as it is too much cost and
equipment jammed inside home...although some folks go for the gusto!!
1.) Mid or Top-Market PC of which has, large case, 24" monitor or more,
multiple cooling fans, at least three internal hard drives: One hard drive
for operating system, two internal hard drives operating in parallel (an
array*) providing a single high performance disk volume. Even a
fourth hard drive can be beneficial---when recording television
programming dedicating a single drive to this process.
2.) Two backup drives. One for archiving, another for active backup.
With this home setup:
a.) Costs for home computing now increase over the minimal setup,
computing equipment, space in home, cooling equipment, electric bill--your
time fooling around with all this stuff---all come into play.
b.) For the professional or serious hacking hobbyist only.
*Disk arrays I have found operate best when running directly
from high performance motherboard having speedy drive controller all of
which conform to chipset, data bus and processor capabilities to "pump"
information from one disk drive interface to another.
Current Backup Recommendations for Home Users
A tape backup is the best current method for backing up data in the most
secure way possible as it allows for easy archiving of many backups.
Yet, a robust tape backup system has cost near $2,000 as a minimum as provided by
www.dell.com.
For most folks at home, a complete backup of all data to a separate hard
disk drive works well and can be setup, tested and documented with service
report and instruction for between $300 and $600 (depending on system)
by Apex Information Services.
Further backups to DVD and archiving are also advisable so as to keep the
most critical information in a safety deposit box or elsewhere in case of
total office calamity.
EXAMPLE (name is fictitious and does not represent any real person):
Martha purchased an HP Photo Smart PC running Windows Vista Premium (having a
300 GB hard disk drive) 9
months ago from Costco and since has accumulated digital photos, music and
home family video which she values tremendously.
To secure her information, Martha wisely choose to purchase a 750 GB
external hard disk drive from Seagate (having a 5-year warranty) and the
Symantec Ghost 12.0 software.
The Ghost 12.0 software automatically backups the entire computer following an
automated schedule and delivers an E-mail message to report either a
complete or failed backup.
Not only is Martha's data secure---so is the installed software and all
configuration settings she spent many hours getting just right.
Martha also chose to burn each of her custom home videos, music and photo
libraries all to DVD.
She then distributed a few of her home family DVD disks to family members.
The more separate physical secure locations the information is stored in,
the more protected it will be.
To further secure a backup to an external hard drive, a second or even
third backup drive is used and is swapped on a regular basis. This
swapping tremendously improves the securing of information in particular
when one of the swapped drives is always kept in a separate physical
location.
When purchasing an external hard disk drive, it is normally best to
purchase the hard drive already installed in the hard disk drive enclosure
as provided by Seagate and shown below.
For systems running Windows XP, top recommended backup software is Ghost
9.0 or higher from Symantec.
Only Symantec Ghost 12.0 or higher is compatible with Vista.
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