Western Digital Backup Plan

Western Digital Backup Plan Computers can and do fail and you usually get no warning before it’s too late. Backing up your data is no longer the chore that it once was. Here are some tips from Western Digital to help make it easier.

Get organized

Put all the documents you create, the pictures you take, and the music you buy in a single master folder. Divide that master folder into sub folders to keep your files organized. Backing up your data becomes much easier if you only have one folder to back up. When all your personal files are in one place, you are less likely to forget a file when you back up. Organization is the secret.

Back up regularly

Get in the habit of backing up your files regularly. If you work on your computer daily, you should back up important files daily. Then, back up everything at least once a week. Better still, look for backup software that backs up your data automatically and instantly without manual or scheduled backups.

Be selective

You don’t have to back up your entire system. That’s a time consuming task that only duplicates all the issues you’ve built up over time on your hard drive. Save original copies of your software programs and reinstall your operating system and a clean copy of your software if your system crashes.

Back up what’s important to you

The most important things to protect are files you create yourself. Whether they are text documents, e-mail messages, pictures, music, videos, or game saves, if you made them, you want to save them and keep them nearby. It’s also helpful to back up the configuration settings for any programs you use, along with critical Windows data such as the registry. And don’t forget to make a duplicate copy of anything you have stored on external storage device.

Use backup software

Use backup software to automate your backup. You can make mistakes or omit something important if you back up manually. An easy-to-use backup program creates a backup of your data reliably and automatically, keeps logs, and notifies you in case of any problem. Most WD external hard drives come with backup software.

WD’s extensive line of external drives that include automatic backup software:

  • My Book Home Edition
    Preserve your precious memories with this ideal combination of elegant, reliable storage and automatic backup features.
  • My Book Office Edition
    Protect your business assets and access them remotely with this easy-to-use combination of reliable storage and automatic backup features. Windows operating system required for remote access.
  • My Book Mirror Edition
    Secure your vital data with WD’s My Book Mirror Edition dual-drive storage system with RAID Mirroring. With RAID-based continuous data protection, automatic data backup software, and user-serviceability, this is the perfect backup system for your irreplaceable data.
  • My Book Studio Edition
    High-speed interfaces make this an ideal solution for creative professionals and video editors.
  • My Book Studio Edition II
    Quad interface, RAID-enabled, about 30% less power consumption, formatted for Mac. The My Book Studio Edition II treads lightly on the earth and carries big performance for creative professionals.
  • My Book World Edition
    Simplified set up and best-in-class performance make the My Book World Edition network drive the perfect choice for centralizing and backing up data on all the computers in your home.
  • WD ShareSpace
    Plug this high-speed Gigabit Ethernet storage system into your small office or home network for centralized storage with plenty of capacity to go around.
  • My Passport Elite
    These sleek little drives combine a luxurious, soft-touch finish with a clever capacity gauge, and backup, sync and encryption, and remote access software.

Where to backup

You can back up to CDs or DVDs, but this is a slow, manual process. And contrary to popular belief, most CDs and DVDs are not permanent. Low-priced CDRs may not be readable at all in as little as two years.

The best backup medium is an external hard drive. High capacity external drives are very fast and allow you to keep all your backed up data in one place. For extra safety, get a two-drive external storage system and dedicate half the capacity for mirroring to automatically and instantaneously back up your backup every time.

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Dealing with the Complexity of Storage Systems

In fact, even with all the advancements in storage technology, only about 20%* of back-up jobs are successful (*according to Enterprise Strategy Group).

Each year hundreds of new data storage products and technologies meant to make the job faster and easier are introduced, but with so many categories and options to consider, the complexity of storage instead causes confusion – which ultimately leads to lost time and the loss of the very data such new enhancements are meant to avoid.

Hence the question for most IT professionals who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in state-of-the-art storage technology remains, “How can data loss still happen and what am I supposed to do about it?”

Why Backups Still Fail
In a perfect world, a company would build their storage infrastructure from scratch using any of the new storage solutions and standardize on certain vendors or options. If everything remained unchanged, some incredibly powerful, rock-solid results could be achieved.

However, in the real world storage is messy. Nothing remains constant – newly created data is added at an unyielding pace while new regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, mandate changes in data retention procedure. Since companies can rarely justify starting over from scratch, most tend to add storage in incremental stages – introducing new elements from different vendors at different times – hence the complexity of storage.

All this complexity can lead to a variety of backup failures that can catch companies unprepared to deal with the ramifications of data loss. One reason why backups fail is due to bad media. If a company has their backup tapes sitting on a shelf for years, the tapes could become damaged and unreadable. This is a common occurrence if backup tapes are not stored properly. Another reason why backups fail has to do with companies losing track of the software with which those backups were created. For a restore to be successful, most software packages require that the exact environment still be available. Finally, backups fail due to corruption in the backup process. Many times companies will change their data footprint but not change their backup procedure to keep up – so they are not backing up what they think they are. Without regular testing, all of these reasons are likely sources of failure.

What to Do When Your Backup Fails
No matter how much a company tries to speed operations and guard against problems with new products and technology, the threat of data loss remains and backup and storage techniques do not always provide the necessary recovery. When an hour of down time can result in millions of dollars lost, including data recovery in your overall disaster plan is critical, and may be the only way to restore business continuity quickly and efficiently. When a data loss situation occurs, time is the most critical component. Decisions about the most prudent course of action must be made quickly, which is why administrators must understand when to repair, when to restore and when to recover data.

When to Repair
This is as simple as running file repair tools (such as fsck or CHKDSK – file repair tools attempt to repair broken links in the file system through very specific knowledge of how that file system is supposed to look) in read-only mode first, since running the actual repair on a system with many errors could overwrite data and make the problem worse. Depending on the results of the read-only diagnosis, the administrator can make an informed decision to repair or recover. If they find a limited amount of errors, it is probably fine to go ahead and fix them as the repair tool will yield good results.

Note: if your hard drive makes strange noises at any point, immediately skip to the recovery option.

When to Restore
The first question an admin should ask is how fresh their last backup is and will a restore get them to the point where they can effectively continue with normal operations. There is a significant difference between data from the last backup and data from the point of failure, so it is important to make that distinction right away. Only a recovery can help if critical data has never been backed up. Another important question is how long it will take to complete the restore – if the necessary time is too long they might need to look at other options. A final consideration is how much data are they trying to restore. Restoring several terabytes of data, for example, will take a long time from tape backups.

When to Recover
The decision to recover comes down to whether or not a company’s data loss situation is critical and how much downtime they can afford. If they don’t have enough time to schedule the restore process, it is probably best to move forward with recovery. Recovery is also the best method if backups turn out to be too old or there is some type of corruption. The bottom line is, if other options are attempted and those options fail, it is best to contact a recovery company immediately. Some administrators will try multiple restores or repairs before trying recovery and will actually cause more damage to the data.

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