The other day, a client needed me to install an automatic backup system. He had bought some software to do the job, but was unsure about installing it himself. He has a new PC, and at first I was not sure whether or not he had copies of what had been on his old laptop. It turned out that all his old emails and files had been copied across onto the new PC by the chap who built the machine, saving me that job. Backup copies of these were on a passport drive already, but my client told me that this wasn’t working either.
Fortunately the problem with the passport drive turned out to be a faulty USB connection (something he will need to take up with the supplier of the PC) and it worked fine in a different socket. The installation and setup of his backup software was a breeze. First, I checked that his old data was really on the passport drive and fully up-to-date. I renamed the files so that they would be distinct from new backups – we wouldn’t want him to restore his old laptop’s settings onto his new PC by mistake! Once that was done, I installed the backup software and ran a full system backup, mirroring his PC’s operating system as well as backing up all his files again. After that, I set up and ran an incremental backup, so that every day all changes are backed up and once a week he gets a replacement full backup. The backups run at 1am (he generally goes to bed around midnight) and the computer closes down when the backup is complete.
One very happy customer, secure in the knowledge that he is protected against system failure.
