Have you backed up your files lately? If not, you risk losing them forever.
No one should rely on any one storage device for their data. Always keep your files in multiple locations, including usb thumbdrives, CD or DVD, external hard drives, and other mediums.
Lethbridge College students have access to their internal college “Z” drives, which offer 750MB of space, but students should save their data on portable drives as well, to minimize the risk of data loss, says Dean Johnson, manager of network services at Lethbridge College.
“Don’t rely on any one thing,” says Johnson. “Use online storage services such as Google or Windows Skydrive.”
Online storage services, including Box.net, allow students to access their files from anywhere with an internet connection. The storage services double as a back-up location for those irreplaceable files.
There are online services dedicated to automatically backing up your files via a small program you install on your computer. Two examples are Carbonite.com, $40 per year, and Mozy.com, $4.95 per month. Either provides incredible peace of mind, and are automatic, so you don’t have to think about it.
With Carbonite and Mozy, they backup all the files you have selected the first time, which takes a while, but only backup the files that have been changed or updated after that.
Another benefit of storing your data online is you can access it from anywhere, as opposed to “Z” drives, which are only accessible on college campus.
Keep data in multiple places in case something happens to one of the sources, so in the case of a hard drive failure, loss of a usb thumbdrive, or a fire, you’re not at a loss, or forced to recreate a report or essay you spent hours or days on.
The college does not keep back-ups of the student “Z” drive, so it’s important not to rely on it as the only storage source, Johnson says.
Information Technology Services doesn’t monitor the data either, though it does monitor quotas automatically.
Student receive an automated email if they go over the allotted 750MB to alert them they need to reduce the number of files they have stored.
However, for Communication Arts and Multimedia in particular, that space fills up very fast, which is why students are encouraged to use external hard drives for their recorded video and graphics work.
“Keep your data on your person,” says Johnson, referring to portable storage.
To read all of my stories and columns, visit the Endeavour website or www.thedigitaldistraction.com.
Originally posted 2008-10-09 17:22:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
4 Comments until now
This is Sean over at Box.net – thanks for recommending us as a service for storing and accessing valuable files online. A couple of things I would add is that Box.net also allows people to share and collaborate on their files and people can edit files stored on Box.net with popular applications like Zoho, ThinkFree, Picnik, Facebook and many others. Readers can learn more about this at http://www.Box.net.
I backup my files and emails with a very easy to use software called Titan Backup, the destination is a 500gb WD harddisk, but the company stated that an online feature is under work also. Give it a free trial here.
I also got my hands on a 30% discount coupon from them, during the order process enter this coupon:NEOB-M5VL
The volumes of data required by media students combined with the lack of budget do result in a category of people who could well do with online backup but find it financially unviable. One other possibility is to look to general online storage such as a basic Amazon serice. While this may strictly speaking move away from the business online backup advantags of schedules and point in time restore it does at least offer what a portable hard drive does and with far less risk.
Portable drives are a disaster waiting to happen. A bit like carrying your life savings on person instead of keeping it in the bank.
John
http://www.backupanytime.com/blog
The volumes of data required by media students combined with the lack of budget do result in a category of people who could well do with online backup but find it financially unviable. One other possibility is to look to general online storage such as a basic Amazon serice. While this may strictly speaking move away from the business online backup advantags of schedules and point in time restore it does at least offer what a portable hard drive does and with far less risk.
Portable drives are a disaster waiting to happen. A bit like carrying your life savings on person instead of keeping it in the bank.
John
http://www.backupanytime.com/blog
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