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We all use computers, some for work, some for personal reasons, some for both. Whether you know it or not, computers have hard drives on which we store precious moments of our life such as Timmy’s first smile, your quickbooks file with 2010 tax return…
It is not a question of whether your hard drive will fail but when will it fail? And when it does, you can say goodbye to your family pictures and videos, that spreadsheet or powerpoint presentation you have been working on for the past week and is due for todays meeting with THE customer, Timmy’s homework… You get the picture, right? The point is that when your hard drive breaks, you will not get a second chance.

Any self-respecting computer geek will tell you that the way to avoid this is through a good data backup routine. Here is what you need to know about easily backing up your data, cheaply and effectively.

Backups should be both automatic and dependable.

Lets start with what you shouldn’t do

Flash drives also called thumb drives can break so it’s not very dependable and you rarely keep your flash drive plugged into your computer long enough to keep backup consistency.

The older method of backup used to be done with CDs and DVDs. Those media are worse than flash drives. You have to make sure cd media are in the drive, properly formatted… Do i need to list all other reasons? Okay, one more-Even if you use rewritable discs you’ll have to replace them every few weeks. Ultimately, CD and DVD backup is the most expensive way to go.

So, what should you use for data backup?

Using An External Hard Drive

External hard drives are great, because most come with automatic backup programs which run automatically in the background. You can get a USB, Firewire or even network attached storage backup drive under the $100 price barrier that will automatically backup hundreds of gigabytes of data.
BUT re-read this sentence – “It is not a question of whether your hard drive will fail but when will it fail”.
Backing up a hard drive with another hard drive has it’s risks.

Finding An Online Backup Service (my favorite solution)

To protect your data from fires, floods, power surges, coffee and anything else that might fry your computer, you should look into an online backup service. These services are cheap, some are even free if you dont have huge space requirements and most important they are totally safe to use. You setup your backup once, launch and forget, your data will be encrypted and sent to a company’s server. Your data will be accessible not only from the computer you backed-up but also from any computer in the world.

There are several online data backup services. The most popular vendors are Mozy, Carbonite, and Dropbox. I personaly use Dropbox because it is easy to setup, it is fairly cheap, it acts as a local hard drive and keeps document history.

Too many times, we are called when it is too late, contact us now to discuss your personal needs. Remember, whatever backup solution your friend or neighbor is using may not work for you.

In the past couple of months we have been called mulitple times to different locations across MA to troubleshoot problems with audio, video and computer equipment.

Many of the mysteries of audio, video and computer equipment failure, downtime, software and data corruption, are the result of a problematic supply of power.

Our technological world has become almost completely dependent upon the continuous availability of electrical power. Every disturbance even the ones we do not notice affects how our equipment performs and it’s life expectancy.

I will list the most common types of power disturbances and below the equipment Certified Connection can provide to protect your equipment and investment.

- Transient problems – Potentially the most damaging type of power disturbance.

- Interruptions – An interruption is defined as the complete loss of supply voltage or current.

- Sags / Undervoltage – A sag is a reduction of AC voltage at a given frequency for the duration of 0.5 cycles to 1 minute. Undervoltages are the result of long-term problems that create sags.

- Swells / Overvoltage – a swell is the reverse form of a sag, having an increase in AC voltage for a duration of 0.5 cycles to 1 minute’s time. Overvoltages can be the result of long-term problems that create swells.

- Waveform Distortion – Waveform distortion typically relates to electronic equipment, which has an internal switch-mode power supply that draws a nonlinear current waveform.

- Voltage Fluctuations – A Voltage fluctuation is a systematic variation of the voltage waveform or a series of random voltage changes.

- Frequency Variations – Frequency variation is extremely rare in stable utility power systems, especially systems interconnected via a power grid.

- Voltage Imbalance - Voltage imbalance is when supplied voltages are not equal. While these problems can be caused by external utility supply, the common source of voltage imbalances is internal.

Are you still reading this?

Certified Connection offers solutions for home and business owners to limit or eliminate, the affects of power quality disturbances.

Audio-Video Solutions from APC

Audio-Video Solutions from Panamax

Home-office and small business solutions from APC

$7.99 power strip are NOT protecting your equipment from all the problems listed above.

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