IT Support Manchester

Data backup and recovery is one of the most overlooked parts of a company’s IT structure. If your company does not have an adequate backup system, you are putting your digital assets at great risk. There are affordable backup and data recovery systems in every price range, so even companies with limited budgets can afford an elementary system at the very least. Also many computer services firms now offer backup and data recovery systems as integral parts of their managed IT services.

Some things to consider when thinking about your backup and disaster recovery solution(s):

1. What happens if I delete a file?
2. Where is my email stored and is it backed up?
3. What if my computer crashes? Even if my data is backed up how long will it take me to rebuild my computer to a working state?
4. Is my data all located in the same physical space?
5. Will a catastrophe wipe out my backup solution i.e. a flood?
6. Does my business count on any one system for business critical functions? How long can my business operate without a functioning system? Does my current backup solution accomodate that expectation?
7. Does someone in our company know how to retrieve information off backups?
8. Are my backups tested so I know they work?
9. Are my backups monitored so I know if they are ever failing?
10. Is the backup data media (i.e. hard drives or tapes) transferred in a secure, controlled manor since it contains all data for my entire business?

This list covers about 1/4 of the questions that one should review when it comes to a practical backup and disaster recovery system so if you haven’t asked yourself these questions, start today!  If you are overwhelmed, contact a local computer services provider which should be able to assist your company.

There's no getting round the fallibility of computers:  the motherboard might die, the power supply may become beyond rescue or the whole thing might just become ridden with viruses and slow to a crawl.  If you decide to buy a replacement computer then the issue of data backup from the old machine to the new one is very important.Use the following 5 steps if you find yourself in this situation:

1) Once you have unplugged the cables and peripherals from your old computer you will then be ready to remove the hard drive from the faulty computer.Your computer's handbook should show you the correct way to open the case.Many older machines will have a case that requires unscrewing to gain access, whereas most others will have latches that simply have to be 'pushed' open.

2)  Now you have the components exposed you should be especially wary of causing damage via static electricity, as anyone well versed in ict facts will tell you.In order to ground yourself touch something metal (like a radiator) before you go near your computer.  Repeat this every time you step away from your machine.

3) Next you should locate the PC's hard drive.This should be simple enough as it should be located at the front of the computer in a slot near the CD drive.Again, in older computers it may well be attached by screws.

4) Disconnect the hard drive power supply unit and data cable by gently pulling them out.Unscrew the hard drive if need be and remove it. 

5) Lastly, you should insert the hard drive into the external hard drive enclosure.Plug the USB data cable into an available USB port on the new working machine.The working computer should then automatically recognise this as an external drive and assign it a letter as appropriate.You should then be able to gain access to the data on the old hard drive.

If you are looking for for more sophisticated data backup solutions then you may want to approach a specialist provider.

Forensics is an ever evolving science with a lot of possibilities acquire deeper knowledge about by different forensics training or forensics classes.
The number of crimes involving electronic data is sky-rocketing these days, particularly with the immense preponderance of computers and other digital media in our lives. Thus, only data forensics experts can search computers for electronic evidence, make digital investigations, recover lost data and provide technical expertise. Data forensics is right to use in judicial cases that involve sexual harassment, intellectual property theft, discrimination, breach of contract and so on. Therefore, it was not difficult for data forensics to become a legal necessity in the context of the computers’ ubiquity.

A normal type of computer investigation cannot detect or extract bits of information remained after deletion. Data forensics will normally examine files that are hidden, deleted or even discarded, as well as fragments or file left-overs. Although it often seems impossible to identify the criminal process or to recover data, experts in this fields have more than once been successful at finding the needle in the haystack. What relevance does such evidence have for legal cases? Well, practice has already proved it that even the course of a trial could be changed by the retrieval of deleted e-mail messages for instance.

The challenges that data forensics expert have to face are enormous. The applications do have far-reaching applications, but it takes hours to extract digital evidence and make it stable. Sometimes the necessary information is buried deep in the corporate electronic system, or sometimes, even if it is physically identifiable it is difficult to separate and analyze extensively, off line. This is also the reason why a duplication procedure is used to protect the information during the extraction process. Great caution, strict standards and lots of skills are required for each of these steps and only real pros can succeed.

A data forensics expert should be contacted immediately, once a breach in the security system or a criminal act against electronic media is detected. This will enable the appropriate and cost-limited data collection in the best conditions possible. Besides computers, there are other electronic storage devices that can be the target of criminal activity, and data forensics also deal with hacked USB devices, DVDs or voice mail systems. Even photocopy machines include hard drives and the scanned or copied documents can be afterwards retrieved from them.

It used to be the case that you would backup everything on your computer using floppy disks.Today, when one sound or graphics file can easily be larger than the capacity of a disk, it would be impractical to back up even you documents using floppies, let alone your applications.  Luckily there are better options including Zip disks, CD writers, tape drives, external hard drives and even online backup services.You can also compress all of your backed up files so they take up less space.Read the following tips and you will be able to find the media that is best suited to your needs.

1) Next, determine the quantity and file sizes you will be backing up.

2) Figure out the quantity and file sizes of any documents or applications you may want to archive permanantly to a backup device or removable media.

3) Plan for that amount to grow considerably further along.

4) Work out your budget for a backup storage device and removable media to use with it.

5) Consider if you plan to archive photographs or scanned files, need portability of the media or the drive itself, wish to record sound or music for playback on other equipment, or need ease of use.Weigh each of these these factors along with your need to back up files.

6) Calculate the total cost per MB of media for each drive that you are considering.  zip drives themselves are cheap but the disks are not.

7) Consider buying a 100MB zip drive if you need limited storage capability (less than 1GB).  An external parallel port or USB Zip drive provides the most versatility and portability.You should consider buying a 250MB Zip drive if your storage needs are moderate (a few GB). 

8) Buy an internal zip drive if you will only use the drive for backup and you are able to install it by yourself (installation fees add up).

9) Consider buying a CD-RW drive if your storage needs are more moderate and you will regularly back up more than 500MB of data.

10) Buy a Jaz drive or even a tape backup drive if you will be backing up large amounts of data on a regular basis.

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12)  If you require additional security, data protection and the ability to recover your data quickly then online data backup should be a serious consideration.