{"id":5715,"date":"2015-04-08T04:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocksdigital.com\/?p=5715"},"modified":"2025-06-24T11:51:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T16:51:59","slug":"why-and-how-to-backup-your-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocksdigital.com\/why-and-how-to-backup-your-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Why and How To Backup Your Data (And Do It Often)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Backup
Image Credit \u2013 Rawpixel.com\/Shuterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do you think about what would happen if you lost all your files? You must backup your data and often. We\u2019ll explore why and how in this post.<\/p>\n

I know and work with some incredibly tech-savvy people who<\/a>, in the past couple of months, several of them have had incidents where they’ve lost files, websites and months of hard work because they didn’t backup their files on a regular basis themselves. I want to share with you what their experiences have taught me.<\/p>\n

First, no matter what your hosting company tells you, make sure you have a plan to backup your data yourself. In all of the aforementioned cases, they were paying their hosting company to handle the backup of their information for them and it simply wasn’t done.<\/p>\n

Questions to Ask When Considering How to Backup Your\u00a0Data<\/h2>\n
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  1. What needs to be backed up? Ask yourself \u201cWhat can I afford to lose?\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. How often does it need to be backed up? Weekly? Daily? Every time a change is made?<\/li>\n
  3. How will you back it up? Are you going to use the cloud with a company like http:\/\/www.carbonite.com<\/a> or https:\/\/www.dropbox.com<\/a>? An external drive? Some combination of both?<\/li>\n
  4. Where and how will you store the backup? External hard drives are great \u2013 but if there is a fire or some other onsite disaster, you may lose your data. And, realistically, hard drives can and do fail.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you are an entrepreneur and the data<\/a> is your own, your answer to the above questions may be different than a website designer who needs to keep their client\u2019s sites up and running.<\/p>\n

    Questions to Ask When Considering A Backup Service<\/h3>\n

    There are several services out there that you can use for backup but there are several items to consider when choosing one.<\/p>\n

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    1. Space needed (Allow room to expand as your business grows)<\/li>\n
    2. Cost (Monthly fee? Annual Fee? One-time fee?)<\/li>\n
    3. Accessibility (How easy will it be for you to get your hands on the data you\u2019re backing up?)<\/li>\n
    4. Ease of use (Do you understand the restoration process?)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Finally, once you’ve made your plans, document the procedures and keep a backup log. Remember to keep a couple of versions of your backup handy – just in case you inadvertently \u201csave\u201d a virus or malware.<\/p>\n

      Someone once told me, there are 2 kinds of people out there, people who backup because they’ve lost data or people who backup because they don\u2019t want to be that first kind of person. It happens to all of us at some point.<\/p>\n