Backing up a computer is critical for your company’s success. If you permanently lose data, you could wind up suffering severe financial costs and experiencing extended downtime that kills your productivity and turns customers away. Data loss can come about in many ways, including employee errors and powerful malware (such as the WannaCry ransomware that popped up in 150 countries).
There are a number of options for how to carry out data backups. Among them is the use of an external hard drive. When choosing an external hard drive as a backup solution, what are some considerations you need to make?
Number of computers. The needs of a small business with multiple computing devices is going to be quite different than, say, those of an individual at home who has to back up a single laptop. When operating a business, consider a network attached storage (NAS) device that can perform automatic backups on multiple devices and offer you a greater storage capacity.
Speed. How quickly can your file get backed up on the external hard drive? This is an important consideration, especially if the files you want to transfer are large ones, such as high-definition videos.
Security. Some simple external hard drives are just straightforward storage bins for your data. You want to carefully look into various security features. For example, you can encrypt the data on your drive and use password protection as an extra safeguard.
Checking that the process worked. It’s possible that there’s a defect on the external hard drive and that some portion of your data didn’t get backed up. It’s important to doublecheck that your backup process is working and that your external hard drive remains in good condition. Even if the backups are automatic, include some oversight and periodically check that the process is working.
For additional questions and for assistance with setting up your external hard drive(s), please contact us. Businesses will often rely on multiple backup solutions. External hard drives can be a good choice depending on the kind of data you’re backing up.
