Loss of data is a common problem for businesses. Fortunately, it’s a problem that can easily be avoided with the correct preparation. While devastating amounts of data can be lost during catastrophes like hurricanes, the September 11 terrorist attacks, fires and floods – it doesn’t take such large events to cause a business to lose important data. It can be as simple as dropping a laptop to the floor, or a power surge that results in burning out a storage device. If you don’t have your crucial data backed up, even a small situation can turn into a disaster.

If you still think natural disasters are the leading causes of data loss – and that the chances of it happening to you are pretty slim, take a look at the results from a study by Strategic Research Corporation of the leading causes of business continuity and disaster recovery incidents:

• Hardware Failures (servers, switches, disk drives, etc) – 44%.
• Human Error (mistakes in configurations, wrong commands issued, etc) 32%
• Software Errors (operating systems, driver incompatibility, etc)14%
• Viruses and Security Breach (unprotected systems are always at risk) 7%
• Natural Disasters 3%

Establishing a disaster recovery plan can be done in the following four steps:

1) Take a potential risk inventory. Make a list of every potential cause of data loss and the solutions to each. Your list should include losses that won’t affect the business very much, and those that would shut the business down temporarily or permanently. Information Technology experts can assist you with creating the potential risk inventory – as they will have the knowledge and experience to identify possibilities that you are not likely to think of but need to plan for all the same. These IT experts will also be able discuss preventative solutions to guard against each type of potential data loss.

2) Rate each of your potential data loss situations. How likely is it for each of the items on your risk inventory to occur? Rating them in order of importance and likeliness to occur will help you determine where to focus your disaster recovery plan efforts.

3) Develop your disaster recovery plan. Go through each of your potential risks and their solutions, and determine how long it would take you to recover from the loss of data for each risk. Could your business be offline for 24 hours? A week? Depending on the nature of your business, being offline for even just 24 hours could result in your losing customers to your competition. Look at ways to reduce the length of time it would take you to recover from each type of data loss risk.

4) Put your disaster recovery plan to the test. Once you’ve created your plan of action for recovering lost data, you should test your solutions. A disaster recovery plan is just a plan until it can be tested and proven.

The backup of mapped drives using the NerdsBackup continuous offsite backup software is no longer supported. This is due to Microsoft releasing a Windows update that has removed this functionality.

Backup of mapped drives is supported in the NB Server version of the software. NB Server is suitable for use on workstations as well as servers. The new NB Server software has gone gold and will be available for general download as soon as our clients that are using the original NB Server software have been migrated to the new software build. NB server has the ability to create both local and/or offsite backups.

Many people use a cloud synchronization service (like DropBox) to sync our files and data between computers. Some of us think that this also constitues a backup of our data, but that is not really correct. Data syncronization is not the same as backup, and SmallBizTechnology.com has 8 tips to help you see the difference between the two. To really protect your data, try NerdsBackup!

Read all 8 Tips: http://smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2011/12/synchronization-is-not-backup-confused-read-these-8-helpful-tips.html/.

According to a recent Business Insider article, 40% of small and mid-sized businesses do not have a data backup strategy and solution in place. Business Insider did a survey of their readers, and found that 40% of them used a cloud-based backup service like NerdsBackup. 47% did backup to a local backup device, such as a USB drive, which does offer a small glimmer of protection, but not much. You can read the article here: http://read.bi/tPxFba.

If your business is to survive a hardware failure, a cloud backup solution is critical. On-site data backups do not protect your business from theft, fire, flood or any other major disaster. Contact our team today to learn more about NerdsBackup and how we can protect your business!

Question:
I have a large number of files and folders that use very long names and these names have to be shortened. If I change the names of these files and folders how does NerdsBackup handle this?

Answer:
If you change the folder name, the folder name is not going to be changed to the new name. However, if you add more files into the renamed folder, it will create another folder in the web portal and any new files add into the folder will be under the newly renamed folder. The renamed folder will not contain the previous files. It will just have the files that are newly added.

If you changed the name of the file, then it will create another backup of the same file but different name. You can run the Cleanup wizard to remove those duplicated files.

What would you do if a disaster happened?

When people mention they have backups, we ask them if they have an OFFSITE/Online backup. Most don’t – and once we remind them about Fire/Flood/Theft, and How INEXPENSIVE Nerds Backup ($1.50 per GB) is compared to losing all their files…they’re eager to sign up!

In regards to security concerns, your files are protected using 448 bit Blowfish Encryption before they leave your PC. This extremely secure “bank grade”encryption algorithm has never been cracked. Your files are then stored in this encrypted state at our secure data center. This means that each user also gets a unique encryption key tied to their username and password. This encryption key ensures that while your data is securely stored at our data center, only you have access to your data. In fact, even our most privileged systems administrators do not have the ability to decrypt your data.

Your data is kept in a state-of-the-art data centre alongside the systems of several major banks. This highly secure physical infrastructure includes the latest in biometric authentication, video surveillance and round-the-clock security officers. Your data is stored at one of Acpana’s data centres and only you have access. All data stored at the data centre and any communication with the data centre is two-way encrypted.

More information about our security methods and FAQs can be found on our website.
All clients should have their data backed up! We encourage you to try Nerds Backup for free for 14 days! If you have any questions, feel free to ask via email (backupservice@nerdsonsite.com), phone, Twitter, or Facebook!

Both the QuickBooks Company File (.QBW) and the QuickBooks backup (.QBB) should be selected for backup by NerdsBackup.

If a QuickBooks Company File (.QBW) becomes corrupt then it is possible that the corrupted file will be backed up by NerdsBackup. The built in backup feature of the QuickBooks program will verify the integrity of the Company File before it creates a backup and if corruption is found it will correct it. Save this backup file (.QBB) to a local folder selected for backup by NerdsBackup. This will ensure the integrity of the Company File.

It is recommended that you configure QuickBooks to create a local backup each time the program is closed.

This procedure is recommended for all database programs that have a built in backup feature. Simply Accounting, for example, functions very similarly in this respect.

More detailed information about this topic is found at:
http://mydata.nerdsbackup.com/Support/EN/quickbooks.aspx

More information about NerdsBackup can be found at the following two websites:
http://mydata.nerdsbackup.com/Support/
https://mydata.nerdsbackup.com/Support/EN/Reseller/

This topic is covered in all NerdsBackup Training Classes. If you are a new Nerd, this course is mandatory. If you have not taken the class in quite some time I would encourage you to take the class again to refresh your memory. This class is free.

[this post is from Mike Duffy, Nerds On Site Calgary]

Statistics show that if you have a laptop,there is a 1 in 14 chance that it will be stolen.

A recent study also showed that if a business losses it’s core data from Hardware or software malfunction it takes 19 days and over $17,000 to re-enter 20 megabtyes of data, that doesn’t include any accounting records which can add 21 days of work and over $19,000 in costs.

This adds up to millions of dollars worth of property and information stolen or lost.

Just like car and home insurance, proper back up, such as our NerdsBackUp solution, among others, insures your electronic information is safe from loss and/or damage.

Don’t risk experiencing the tragic feeling of losing vital business information and treasured personal family photos and memories, when you can avoid it with an off-site backup solution.

[Chris Rose from Newfoundland, CA contributed to this post]

“I had a client call this morning. He had been working on a Word document on Friday evening and somehow managed to save a blank document over the original document of 135 pages. We were able to log into the Nerds Backup system and retrieve the most recent version from late Thursday night. This saved my client from having to retype 60 pages of work from a backup he had placed on a flash drive approximately a month ago.”

Are you backing up your data on a regular basis, or even better, using an off-site, automatic system like Nerds Backup to provide you this same peace of mind in case something is deleted, misplaced, or becomes corrupted or damaged? Take a look at the Nerds Backup website. If it doesn’t suite your needs, there are many others that surely will, including Carbonite, Mozy, BackBlaze, among others. Find  one that you like and let it backup your data automatically, so you’ll never have to worry about data loss again. We can’t stress the importance of this enough!

KineticD recently released an update for the NerdsBackup program which caused NerdsBackup to stop and the Start Service button not to work.  Only clients who have Block Out hours enabled are affected.

An update to resolve this issue was quickly released but it will be necessary to force the update (on affected machines only) by doing the following:

1. Double Click on the Diamond Shaped NerdsBackup Icon.

2. Click on Options

3. Go to Block Out Tab

4. Take off all Block Out hours

5. Shutdown NerdsBackup

6. Restart NerdsBackup

7. Hit Start Service button

8. The software will request update

9. Choose Block Out hours again

We apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused.  For further assistance with this or anything else related to NerdsBackup please email backupservice@nerdsonsite.com.