Acronis Resource Center

Protection Against Data Loss

You've finally taken steps to back up your computer to removable media, such as a CD-ROM. Are you finally protected against data loss? Not yet. Making an image using a product like Acronis True Image is a big first step toward protecting your precious data, but it's not the final step. To be really protected, there are a couple of things you still need to do.

The first step is to set up a backup plan. You'll need more than just one backup — you should set up a schedule using some kind of regular rotation system. Don't just overwrite your backup with your next backup. Any kind of glitch or error in writing the new backup can leave you with no backup at all. In addition, if there is a problem that has been building silently since before your last backup, you're left with two corrupted copies of your data.

Instead, set up some kind of rotation scheme using at least three copies of your data. The most popular is the Grandfather-Father-Son system.

Once you have more than one copy of your data, you need to store it safely. That means moving the most recent full image of the disk away from the computer. It should go at least to another room and preferably to another location entirely. The location can range from a safe deposit box at your bank to a friend's house to a secure storage facility, depending on the size of your company. Since the media needs to be stored in a cool, dry place, don't keep them in your car or a storage facility without climate control.

Also, remember that you can store images over a network, so if you have a system that's off-site, you can store your images there, as well.

To handle immediate problems like accidentally deleted files, you should keep an image of the partitions containing your data on your hard drive. That's right — you can create an image of your disk and keep a copy on the same partition. Although such an image isn't nearly secure as a removable media backup, it is much faster and easier to recover files from a clone on your hard disk. However, if your disk has a failure, this image might not be accessible.

The concept of the Grandfather-Father-Son approach is that you make a complete image weekly, then add increment images daily. At the end of the week, make another complete image, but save your old image. At the end of the second week, you can create a new full image. At this point you have three full images. The oldest image is now retired, the second-oldest image becomes the oldest and now goes off-site, and you continue making daily incremental images.