Backup is for fools!

Who needs backup? Who really cares if everything they have been working on for years crashes, burns, and is gone forever? Who needs those pictures, home videos, tax forms, and bank statements? Wouldn't it be nice to wipe the slate clean and simply start over?

As lame as that may sound, this is what most people seem to think... or at least this is how most people act. Scary.

All disks will fail. Expect it. I have disks that have gone south in as little as a couple of months (thank goodness for warranties.) On the other hand, I have a disk in a small network device that has been running nonstop in my basement for 10 years now. Just know that all disks will fail... but we never know when.

From my experience, it seems that most people don't take backup seriously, that is until they lose something of value. Pick a backup scheme, any backup scheme. I don't care which backup methodology you choose, just pick one and run with it!

On that note, there are a ton of backup strategies out there! I have my favorites, and they work well for me, let's see if you can tell from the following methods which one I choose:

• Disk Image Backup: This provides a complete backup of your entire disk, including data, operating system, configuration, etc. In case of total disk failure you can simply restore the image to a new disk and voila, you are back up and running! Quick and Easy! My favorite product for this method is StorageCraft ShadowProtect, but Symantec and Acronis also offer similar products.
• File Level Backup: Provides quick backup of specific files and folders on the disk (think pictures, tax forms, etc.) While generally faster to backup, and results in smaller backup files, a total disk failure will force you to find that Windows/Mac/Linux cd, and start the install from scratch. A fresh install isn't necessarily a bad thing, and generally speeds up your system like it's new, but this isn't the best of use time when you just want to get your system back up and running. There are literally tens to hundreds of products on the market that can help you keep individual data files backed up.
  
• Mirror/Replication: Mirroring and replication are completely different animals, but they both provide the same functionality... making sure everything is saved in two places. This means that every time you save a file, that file will also be written to a second disk or system, which is always ready to take command if needed. While replication is utilized most often in large business, mirroring is found everywhere. The main downside to this strategy is that if you delete or corrupt something on your disk, that change will be replicated... Uggg!
  

There are other strategies you may want to consider, as well as recovery methods, and places to store all that data, but I will discuss those at a later time. Like I said earlier, I don't care which backup method you choose, just make sure you get everything backed up. Remember, there are only three sure things in this world... Death, Taxes, and Disk Failure, and you want to be prepared for all of them!