What Are The Benefits of Anti-Virus Software?

One of the most important things is to stay ahead of the attacks with updates and real time protection. Without this, there is very little that may be done once the malware assaults, other than rebuilding the machine or hiring an IT company to clean the virus from the machine and THEN install an anti-virus application.

How often do I have to save my work

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Save OftenEver hear of the old hang gliding saying? “Never fly higher than you’re willing to fall?” well, you should apply the same to how much work you are willing to loose. Time is valuable, and we all know that time is money. Therefore, properly saving work files is important to avoid losing your valuable work.

If the project that I am working on is billable for clients, then I save more often. I am not willing to lose an hour of billable work, so, therefore, I would not go an hour without saving. Backups are as important as saving. If 4 hours of work has been done, and diligently saved, and then my computer crashes, then I am still back to ground zero. Personally, I save work files every few minutes, and backup every hour. In the event that saving vs. backup is confusing:

 

Saving your work: When you are working, nothing is written permanently to your pc. All the current work is being done in memory, which is temporary storage for all the items you are working on. Memory is flushed when you reboot your computer, so it is not permanent. When you save your work, it commits it the hard drive. The hard drive is permanent storage. It’s like taking that list in your head, and writing it down before you forget!

Backing Up:

When you backup your files, you are creating a copy of your work, and putting it somewhere else. As much as we would like to think of our computer as permanent, hardware failures happen, and data is lost. By keeping a copy in a separate location, you can retrieve your data if you have hardware failure. If you are backing up to a disk, or tape drive, the backups should never be ON TOP of the computer you are working on. In the case of building damage (fire, water, etc), your backups are going to be ruined with your computer.

Most programs (not all) do an auto-save in the event you suddenly loose power, but it is still best to intentionally saving work on your interval. Programs also have shortcuts to saving work. Some of the shortcuts or features you can look for:

  1. AutoSave:  See if your program supports AutoSave, and if the increments are configurable.
  2. AutoBackup:  Some programs, like QuickBooks, do not necessarily allow you to “save” your work, each transaction is saved to the program database individually.  However, they do have a backup program that can remind you to back up your data daily or as you exit the program.  Ensure you are picking an alternate location to back up to.
  3. Keyboard shortcuts:  Programs, like Microsoft Office Products, frequently have Keyboard Shortcuts to save your work.  Ctrl-S is one of them.
  4. Cloud based Backup Products:  If you have contract with a cloud based backup company, or an IT company who supports and monitors backups, you should ensure you have continuous backups of all the work you have saved.

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Why do I need more than one backup?

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“My IT Company is crazy! They want me to have multiple backups… I use my flash drive nightly, and am ok.”

“I know I have backups, someone set it up years ago and it runs automatically… I think.”

“What, you should test your backups?”

Yes, backing up can be a pain, but unless you are willing to use all your hard work, or memories, it might be worth it. If your home or office burns down, what will you be able to retrieve if you don’t have multiple backups.

Types of data to backup:

System State:

This is a copy of the configuration of your machine. In the event of failure, sometimes the COST of rebuilding the machine and the programs is the most expensive element.

Data:

This is your documents, pictures, music libraries and company data. One should always create multiple backups for such data.

Application based backup:

Many applications have their own backup, and for restoration purposes, need the backup in their proprietary format in order to restore the data. If this is the case with the applications, you should run the application-specific backup, and then backup the data file set it produces on another medium.

Types of backups (Media)

USB Drive:

Great for second copies of data and system state and data. Do realize that after the USB Devices fall from the top of the cabinet once, they can mechanically stop working and become DOA. Not a good place for your only backup, and definitely not a good place for original files and music libraries!

Tape Drives

These have been in service for years, and still work. Unfortunately, they do rely on complicated restores of data, and offsite storage. Nothing says failure when your backup tapes are on top of the server you are backing up. Very expensive fire | storm | water victim when the tapes are ruined with the server they are backing up. Can be very expensive for both tapes and tape drives.

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