Computer Backup

ihamner

Expert Expediter
Okay now! I saw that guilty look and heard that deep sigh when you read the title of this post!!!

We all need reminders occasionally, though. If you do not have an external hard drive, you need to pick one up at a Best Buy and start backing up your hard drive on a regular basis (once a week or at LEAST once a month).

While you are at it, update your virus protection every time you do a back up if you don't have an automatic update on your virus protection.

One other thing that will help your computer run efficiently is to clear the cache on your Firefox/IE. To clear it in XP
1. Open a browser (IE or Firefox)
2. Click Tools at the top
3. Click Options
4. Click Privacy
5. Click "Clear Private Data Now"
6. Click OK

A little time for maintenance goes a long way!!
 

redytrk

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
This is on my to do list,,,Has been for years. Thanks for the reminder.

Leo Laporte (Remember him from Tech TV) says you should not keep your back ups in the same place as your computer, in case of fire, tornado etc.
 

MentalGiant

Seasoned Expediter
This is on my to do list,,,Has been for years. Thanks for the reminder.

Leo Laporte (Remember him from Tech TV) says you should not keep your back ups in the same place as your computer, in case of fire, tornado etc.

Yep, I remember Leo. Guess you can do a back up every time you go home. If your worried about important documents, you can do a back up online. There are many places you can do that at. Most all charge though.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Thanks for the reminder, India. As they say on that disaster preparedness radio commercial, "It's never too late until it is."

I do full backups at home where the hard drive backup is. Between trips home, we use two flash drives (drives about the size of your thumb that plug into your computer, sometimes called thumb drives). One flash drive is kept in the truck, the other at home with the person who takes care of our mail.

I backup the important files onto the flash drive and carry it with me every time both of us are out of the truck at the same time (truck unattended). If the truck is stolen, burned, burglarized or whatever while we are away and the computer is lost or destroyed, we can buy another computer, install new software, plug in the flash drive and be back in business that quick. (Replacing the truck would take longer, of course.)

"Important files" is a relative term. What may be important to one person is unimportant to another. A flash drive can hold a lot of files, including photos, spreadsheets, etc. A large amount of data can be backed up onto a flash drive easier than it can be uploaded to an online file storage service. It is less expensive too once you buy the flash drives.

Every so often, by mail or when one of us is home, I swap the flash drive in the truck for the one at home. We have a truck fire drill set up which includes grabbing the flash drive, wallets, etc. on our way out a burning or wrecked truck, if there is time.

If we do not get the flash drive out and the computer is also destroyed, we can have the flash drive at home sent to us and be back in business as soon as we buy a new computer to plug it into. The files on the flash drive from home will not be up to the minute, but we will have most of what we need.

To lose all our data, the following would have to happen all at once: our computer in the truck would have to be lost or destroyed, the flash drive we carry in the truck or on our person would have to be lost or destroyed, the flash drive at home would have to be lost or destroyed and the backup hard drive at home would have to be lost or destroyed.

When we are home with the truck, the truck is parked far enough from the house such that if either one burns, the other is unlikely to be affected.

Some of this may sound paranoid or over the top to some readers. That's OK. Living through a house fire at a young age has a way of conditioning you.

The accident Glen and Janice Rice had also brought home the truth that any expediter on the road can have it all destroyed in an instant.

For those who do not know, while driving down the Florida Turnpike in their CR-unit, Glen and Janice were struck by a car that crossed the median at high speed. Their truck immediately started on fire. They got out with the clothes on their back and nothing else. Glen's shoes were on fire as he got Jan out of the truck and they both fled.

Everything in the truck was lost including their cell phones, credit and debit cards, cash, IDs, computers, clothes, jewelry, toiletry bags, everything. After receiving a ride home, it was a challenge to get to their money because they had no IDs to show the bank when they wanted to make a withdrawal.

Below are the before and after photos of the Rice truck. Once the car hit them, it took just a moment to transform the before truck into the after truck. A moment before the car hit them, it was just another day on the road.

If this happened to you, how long would it take you to recover your information, notify your vendors, get new cards and IDs, etc.? If your truck and everything in it were burned or stolen, how would you get your transportation, shelter, communications and business going again?

Pick a state not your own. You are out on the road with your truck, far from home, then, in an instant, your truck, cell phone, computer, ID's, money, clothes, toiletries, and credit, debit and fuel cards, and everything else in the truck are gone. It might be a crash like the Rices's. It might be you leaving a movie and finding your truck gone from the parking lot.

Are you prepared? The more recovery information you have backed up and/or kept on file, the better prepared you will be.

rice_truck_before.jpg


rice_truck_after.jpg
 
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hedgehog

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
For many years, I've encrypted my important files with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), copied it over to a flash drive and also emailed the file(s) to all three of my grownup children so that they keep them on their hard drives.

I also use Carbonite which will backup anything for $49 a year. (I googled the name and found a coupon for only $39 a year.
 

inkasnana

Expert Expediter
I remember seeing the "after" version of that truck when we were in one of the previous trucks that we have driven. We were getting our truck worked on for some reason and the burned truck was sitting in the corner of the parking lot. All you can say when looking at it is "Wow".
 

jsbiker

Seasoned Expediter
back up :mad::confused:

ok ok now i have look for the owners book from the other post and read it

i did not know it had reverse in it.. whats next a back up buzzer.

:eek:
 

FIS53

Veteran Expediter
When I was doing small business systems we always instructed and demonstrated how to do backups for the accounting systems we installed. Of course there was the daily and we also counciled a weekly archive which was on a separate disk (cd-dvd-zip-tape etc). Then added to this was a monthly done prior to closing the books for the month (most important as once closed a month can not be altered), then of course a yearly. we also recommended a second copy of the weekly/monthly/yearly minimum and for most businesses we recommended different disks for each day of the week so as to reduce loss to a max of 1 week or at best 1 day. Also recommended off-site storage of archived second backup.

For us a thumb/flash drive while on the road is a decent choice due to size/weight etc. I utilize a dvd for the accounting books at home and for pictures a dvd or cd both in rw format so i can add as i wish before finalizing. Backups of data can not be stressed enough as they are the only way to insure data retention for yearly tax fun.

Once we have the new server installed at the house we'll be able to backup to it and have a decent place to store everything. It has its own dedicated power source off the fuse box with spike protection, UPS unit for 6 hours running without outside power, with automatic shutdown of system and network, multiple drive raid pack so if a hard drive dies we can reconstruct the data on it as it is spread out over all 4 drives, separate ducting from the a/c unit for the house and a fireproof enclosure rated for over 1500 deg. I think we've about covered it for most problems as well as waterproofing for the raised floor (sealed wall joints as well) its going on. Oh yeah cost of all this??? Under $3000 for everything. Capacity of server 2Tb (current configuration, not counting dual layer dvds).

Oh why the trouble?? I've been audited and if your books are computerized with electronic copies etc, it makes for a much faster audit and a lot less questions from the auditor.
Rob
 
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