Tech Connect: You are backed up, aren’t you?

In this column last month, I talked about how the first step in making sure that your key business files are protected is to recognize how vulnerable they are.

Your files can be destroyed, lost or damaged. Human error, mechanical failures, viruses, etc., are all potential sources of data loss.

When it comes to threats to your computer files, you should be pessimistic. Keep in mind this technology-centric version of Murphy's Law: 'Technology will fail in novel and unexpected ways at the worst possible moment.”

Because of this, back up systems for computer files were developed as a means to preserve information essential to running the business. Well-thought-out backup systems offer the best chance to keep your business up and running.

Even with backup systems in place, things do happen. At a former employer, we had tremendous amounts of accounting information generated each month that had to be available for governmental audits. The company used the best backup software and the best practices at the time.

One day we had a major problem and needed to restore our accounting files from the previous day. The computer guy got things in order and loaded the backup.

But to the horror of our accounting manager, there were no files. It turned out that the backup system had not been saving properly for more than a year and no one knew it.

The backups we had been religiously doing were all blank.

Our only option was to load manually about nine months of transactions, including payroll for more than 800 employees. This was an arduous and very expensive task.

Even after we finished the project, one had to wonder how many errors were injected into the data through the rebuilding project.

Another example was when we took on a new client and immediately saw that a better backup system was needed. The owner was a bright guy who seemed to know more about IT than most small business owners, and was very hands-on.

Most of the employees at his company used desktops, and our system backed up everyone, every night. All but one it turned out - the owner. He exclusively used a laptop.

When his hard drive crashed, we found out that all his company's business history on his laptop never had been backed up. He had never backed up before we were hired, and our system had never backed him up.

Despite our warnings, he did not leave his laptop connected to the network when our backup software ran each night.

Using a data recovery service, we were able to recover nearly all his files from his crashed hard drive. He was lucky - but it was very expensive.

A backup in itself is not an absolute guarantee that in the event of a major problem you will be protected. Experts recommend that redundant backup systems be used simultaneously.

' Mike McKay is general manager and co-founder of Keystone IT, mike@keystoneit.com