computer help required!
Posted by: pjl on 28 April 2008
Firstly, sorry in advance for posting what to most people must seem like a ridiculous question. I have no interest in computers but my wife and I run our own business so we now find ourselves needing to make use of one more and more. My question is: could someone be kind enough to explain clearly exactly what the difference is between backing up data and making a copy of it? Thanks in advance.
Peter
Peter
Posted on: 28 April 2008 by Jeremy Marchant
They're essentially the same thing. The difference, perhaps, is one of purpose.
A back up of data is a copy specifically made to ensure that, in the event of loss of the original, you have another copy to carry on working with. However, you might make copies of data for other purposes, for example to give someone else a copy, or, if you are a UK civil servant, so that you can lose it on the public transport system.
If I may add, businesses should always back up their data. Failure to do so will result in likely collapse of the business in the event of catastrophic loss of data (something like 75% of businesses go bust as a direct result of such a loss).
I use, and strongly recommend, a commercial back up service which accesses my pc every day and backs up all the files I specify onto one or more servers a long way away. There are a number of these. I use New Prospect.
regards
A back up of data is a copy specifically made to ensure that, in the event of loss of the original, you have another copy to carry on working with. However, you might make copies of data for other purposes, for example to give someone else a copy, or, if you are a UK civil servant, so that you can lose it on the public transport system.
If I may add, businesses should always back up their data. Failure to do so will result in likely collapse of the business in the event of catastrophic loss of data (something like 75% of businesses go bust as a direct result of such a loss).
I use, and strongly recommend, a commercial back up service which accesses my pc every day and backs up all the files I specify onto one or more servers a long way away. There are a number of these. I use New Prospect.
regards
Posted on: 28 April 2008 by PJT
quote:Originally posted by Jeremy Marchant:
They're essentially the same thing. The difference, perhaps, is one of purpose.
A back up of data is a copy specifically made to ensure that, in the event of loss of the original, you have another copy to carry on working with. However, you might make copies of data for other purposes, for example to give someone else a copy, or, if you are a UK civil servant, so that you can lose it on the public transport system.
If I may add, businesses should always back up their data. Failure to do so will result in likely collapse of the business in the event of catastrophic loss of data (something like 75% of businesses go bust as a direct result of such a loss).
I use, and strongly recommend, a commercial back up service which accesses my pc every day and backs up all the files I specify onto one or more servers a long way away. There are a number of these. I use New Prospect.
regards
A backup collection/saveset etc may not necessarily be readable or usable in it's native format. It is the restore process that does this.
Additionally, because of this every backup may not be of all files on your disk., but could be a collection of files that have changed since your last backup - either (full or incremental I might add). Again this incremental backup may only contain the changed portions of the file that was changed...
In general the backup strategy chosen for an organisation is normally based upon the RESTORE time.
Posted on: 29 April 2008 by pjl
Many thanks for the replies both.
Regards,
Peter
Regards,
Peter
Posted on: 29 April 2008 by Jono 13
If you can find someone to make an "image" of the system before you start using it, then you can always restore to this point if you enjoy a total system failure.
When you backup your system make sure you have a couple of copies off-site. This will protect you in the case of a fire.
Jono
When you backup your system make sure you have a couple of copies off-site. This will protect you in the case of a fire.
Jono