When Your Computer Fails: A Disaster Recovery Strategy for the Home-based Business
By Pamela Bruce

If you are self-employed and work from home, you wear several hats, so to speak: you may be the marketing manager, accountant, receptionist or PR person. You are also your own technical support department and therefore responsible for safeguarding your data.

You should be clear about two things:

1. Sooner or later, disaster will strike. It does not have to be anything as dramatic as storm, fire or flood - an overheated motherboard, a malfunctioning hard drive or a computer virus can be enough.

2. The cost of backup hardware and media is trivial compared to the value of your data. Imagine that you lost your customer list, your product database or other crucial business data. How would your business continue?

Here are some tips for implementing a disaster recover strategy:

• Buy an external hard drive. These hard drives, which connect to your computer via the USB 2.0 or FireWire port (check which port your computer has) have fallen dramatically in price. Some of them are about the size of a paperback and can be easily transported. Most come with a backup program that lets you schedule automatic backups for your data.

• Put all crucial computer-related information in a folder. This includes the customer support numbers of hardware and software manufacturers, serial numbers, warranty documents and configuration information. The last thing you want to do is to hunt for these items while you are desperately trying to get your computer working again.

• Back up data and store the media offsite. Having an external hard drive is great, but what would happen in the case of theft, flood or fire? You should regularly (let your calendar program remind you) back up important data on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and store these elsewhere, such as at a friend's house or in a safe deposit box at your bank.

• Back up data online. There are numerous companies that will store your data online for a fee, but it might even be enough to use a web-based e-mail service such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, as these now offer very generous storage quotas. Just mail important files to yourself.

• Have extra hardware. If your main computer fails, you can just move the external hard drive to your laptop and continue working. It might also be useful to keep an old computer around as a backup machine, as long as it still runs the programs you need to use. This way, you do not have to run out and buy a new computer right away, if your current one fails.

  Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the sterling silver and Swarovski crystal bead jewelry she designs and creates both in her eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/LOVE-BEADS-UNLIMITED) and on her website at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com, where you can also download the free e-book "A Consumer's Guide to Buying Bead Jewelry Online".

  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Bruce

If you have experienced a loss of data, contact ACS Data Recovery today. ACS Data Recovery will work with you each step of the way. We know how valuable your data is, and that is why we each case gets the same undivided attention.

To get started, please take a moment to call and speak with one of our friendly data recovery professionals toll-free at 1-877-646-0546. They will consult with you and give you a flat-rate price for your recovery, depending on the type of failure you have experienced. After you have spoken with a representative, please Complete Our Data Recovery Request Form. Once you have completed this form, simply print it out and ship it with your media. It's that simple! Once we receive the drive, we will evaluate it and give you a call to confirm the price before we ever start the recovery procedure.

Call Toll-Free 1-877-646-0546 For A Quote.

We are data recovery experts, specializing in complex hard drive failures. If you have a crashed hard drive or you think you have experienced a hard drive crash, then call us immediately 1-877-646-0546. We provide our hard drive data recovery services nationwide to a wide variety of clientele in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oklahoma/Indian Territory, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

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