New Year's Resolution

It's time for those lovely New Year's Resolutions again!  I'm a Business Analyst, so I collect a LOT of documentation throughout the year.  As a part of my resolution list this year, I'm going to be making an effort to clean out the last year's documents and emails.  It's also a good time to verify your computer backups at home and at work.  


For those of you using Outlook, email backups and cleanup should be easy.  To set your Archival settings, follow these steps:


1. Click the File tab
2. Click Cleanup Tools.
3. Click Archive.
4. Click the Archive this folder and all subfolders option, and then click the folder that you want to archive. Any subfolder of the folder you select is included in this manual archive.
5. Under Archive items older than, enter a date.
6. If you do not want to use the default file or location, under Archive file, click Browse to specify a new file or location. Browse to find the file that you want, or enter the file name, then click OK. The destination file location appears in the Archive file box.
7. Select the Include items with “Do not AutoArchive” checked check box to include any items that might be individually marked to be excluded from automatic archiving. This option does not remove that exclusion from these      items, but instead ignores the Do not AutoArchive check box for this archive only.




NOTE!  Be sure you include items on your calendar if you keep agendas on the calendar items themselves. 


Once you have created your archive, be sure to save this off to your backup location.  There are many options for system backups:  from cloud storage to local hardware.  One option I like to recommend is Dropbox.com.  If you  haven't used it, it works like the archival settings on Outlook- you download the software and establish your backup schedule and which folders to backup.  You get 2GB free storage, but I personally recommend you take Dropbox up on its current offer of free additional space if you invite others to use the service.  Of course, if you like Dropbox, you can always purchase the additional storage for a small annual fee.  Google has its own cloud storage that accompanies all email addresses:  Google Drive.  Again, you get a small about of free storage with the option to purchase an increased amount.


The downside I see with Dropbox or Google Drive, or any cloud storage, is security- someone can see the data you put out there and someone has access to it, at least from  an administrative perspective.  Then there's the possibility of a security hack of Dropbox, so I highly recommend that you encrypt your data if you have secure or confidential contents that you put out in the Cloud.  In addition, there still the possibility that the servers will corrupt and your data will be lost, though the cloud providers would like you to believe that this will never happen.


That brings us to the option of local hardware backups.  The problems that I see here are price, convenience, and knowledge.   You will need to go purchase a drive or other media for your backups.  Yes, you can use CDs, but what most people don't realize is that CDs have a shelf-life and the data eventually  decays.  Copying a copy from a CD had data integrity problems- little errors are created every time you copy and then you're making a copy of a bad copy which gets worse…in other words, your data gets cancer.  So, what else?  Hardware drives fail (ah, the click of death).  Hard drives can also be expensive though the price of a 1TB hard drive is definitely coming down to a household expenditure level.  But then you need to REMEMBER to do your backups.  You also need to know how to administrate your own backup issues. 


Whatever method you pick, you might want to keep in mind that your data is like a retirement plan:  diversify and review often.  There isn't one best solution, but it's the amount of risk you want to live with (or without).