We had a big server crash at work last week, and in spite of all the drive redundancy and mega-expensive hardware, the following fact is indisputable:

 WE LOST ALL OF OUR DATA

The good news was that we had a backup copy of everything.

 This raises several important points about backing things up:

• If your hard drive fails or your computer breaks or is stolen, DON''T assume you can ever get the data back.
• Even if you have backups running, VERIFY that they are working.
• Follow the backup doctrine: Back up FREQUENTLY, Back up SEQUENTIALLY (have more then one version of your backup), and back up IN MORE THEN ONE PLACE (in case of fire or theft, make sure your backups are not located near the original copies).
• Have your backups run AUTOMATICALLY. User intervention is a key reason why backups DON''T happen. Nobody wants to add something else onto their list of things to do every day, every week, and every month. A rule of thumb: If your backups don''t happen automatically, your data won''t be getting backed up on a regular basis.

Here are some suggestions for backing up your data, organized by the type of environment you are trying to back up.

For most home users:

Allway Sync is a nice, simple program to use in the following scenario:

• ¬†Purchase two 8 GB USB memory keys
• Configure Allway Sync to back up your data whenever either of these keys are inserted.
• Switch the memory keys once a week
• Store the memory key that is not inserted in a safe place away from your computer.

This solution satisfies the backup doctrine: Two complete backups exist on two separate USB keys. The disadvantage of this solution: you have to physically change the USB keys.

For backing up websites:

Don''t ever assume that your website host is backing up your data. The following solution will allow you to keep a local copy of your website at home using an automated backup routiene.

• Back up your web-based databases. If you are using Joomla, programs exist to schedule this backup automatically, like JoomlaPack. The backup program will dump a copy of your database into a text file and keep that somewhere on your host''s server. It will also zip and backup the entire Joomla database.
• Back up you host''s server to your home network. This is best accomplished by using a small server on your home network, such as an NSLU2 running UNSLUNG. Use the Linux program NCFTP to script a backup from your web host to a directory on your NAS drive at home.

The advantage of being a giant nerd is that I have a lot of neat technology running at my house.

The computers:

• A Dell Optiplex 530 running Windows XP on a monitor as big and as failure prone as your mortgage.
• A 13" 2008 Macbook running OS X 10.5.5 and Windows XP on VMWare Fusion

The network:

• Two Linksys WRT-54g routers running DD-WRT as wired bridges. Translation: My desktop machine uses a wired connection to one router which is wirelessly connected to the main router.
• One Linksys NSLU2 device running UNSLUNG that connects my external 500GB drive to the network. This means I can back up my Desktop, MacBook, and website to this drive. See this related article about the importance of backups and the methods you can use.

The irony of running Windows XP on my Mac as a Virtual Machine in VMWare Fusion is that it is still susceptible to viruses.

I spent most of yesterday trying to nail this one which was still present IN SAFE MODE and wasn''t detected by Symantec AV 10 or Spybot. I then came across this thread: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic174090.html which pointed me to a software package called MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and wham, my problem was solved.