Expert prioritises the safety of our clients’ websites and online data. We back up their websites each business day and have off-site storage in case of emergency. We also have a few tips up our sleeve that can be implemented by our clients to ensure the safety of their own files and information.

Saving your work

This is the first and most obvious way to ensure you do not lose your information. Saving your work every couple of minutes ensures the safety of what you’ve just completed and will reduce information loss in the event of a power cut. Get into a habit of saving frequently.

File location

Saving your files in ad hoc locations on your hard drive can cause an inability to find the file, especially if you cannot remember the name of the file or you name the file incorrectly. Being unable to find or have the ability to search for that file effectively means lost information. Even if you have tonnes of files already on your computer, it is worth the time (or money) sorting out your computer’s filing and folder system to ensure you never have trouble locating a file again. This will reduce costs and time in the long-term.

Shutting down computer programmes

Workers will often leave their desk for a break or at the end of the day without shutting down programmes on their machines. This may cause them to not save the file they are working on due to knowing that they will be back in a reasonable amount of time or the next day. Unfortunately, computers are susceptible to malfunctions or power outages and the user may lose the work they had just completed. Try shutting down the computer programme being worked on. This will prompt the automated ‘would you like to save your work’ box. This may sound like a time consuming process due to having to restart the programme next time you’re at your desk, but if you are not the greatest at regularly saving your work, this will reduce the risk of you losing your work.

Local Back-up systems

• Back-up tapes can be set up which will back-up the day’s work of your office. The back-up tapes need to be taken home or to an off-site location each day and replaced with a back-up tape for the next day. If anything happens at your business’s premises overnight, your business’s data will be secure.
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• Back-up programs can be downloaded (free or at a price). Paid programmes will generally have advantages such as automated back-up scheduling. The program may also allow you to choose to mirror your hard drives contents or compress the backed up data to save space. Good backup programs perform versioning which keeps several forms of the file, allowing you to choose which version to restore.
• Using a portable hard drive is an easy way to back up your important files. Dropping and dragging data into the device is easy but can be a time consuming process.
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Cloud storage

The service safeguards you from losing your data if a disaster were to occur that caused the loss of your computer or physical back–up storage. The data is stored online and in an off-site storage location. As long as you are connected to the internet, you can save and access your data within your cloud storage system any time, from any device. Plenty of services offer the ability to download a localised folder to your computer which enables you to save your file in that folder, like you would with any other folder on your computer. The folder then automatically syncs and updates your online cloud account folder. Effectively, the local folder and your online cloud service account folder are mirrored.