Best Practices for Computer Backups

The backup and restore tools built into Windows 7 are intended for home users and small businesses. Typically, enterprises will need a third-party backup-management tool to manage the large number of client computers.

However, Windows 7 backup can be very useful in many common scenarios:

• Mobile users Mobile users often travel with their computers, preventing network backups from succeeding. For these users, you should provide external storage that they can use to back up their computers while they are away from the office. Typically, this would be an external USB hard drive. Mobile users can also back up to writable DVDs (if the computer is equipped with a DVD burner) or a large-capacity portable audio player that can act as an external hard disk.
• Users who work from home Users who work from home may not have sufficient bandwidth to participate in network backups. Additionally, their connectivity may not always be stable enough to allow them to store important files on your internal servers. To reduce the risk of these workers losing important data, equip users with external storage and configure automatic backups.
• Small or branch offices To back up computers in small or branch offices with a 100- Mbps or faster LAN, configure a server with sufficient disk storage for backups from each computer. Then schedule automatic backups to store files to a shared folder on the server. Alternatively, you can use network attached storage (NAS).

Keeping an external hard disk attached to a computer with automatic updates enabled is the most convenient and reliable way to back up a computer. However, because the backup media is physically close to the computer, this configuration does not protect against common data recovery scenarios such as theft, fire, or electrical surges. To protect against these threats, users should perform weekly full backups to a second external storage device and then store that storage device securely at a different location. For the best protection, users should have two off-site storage devices and alternate between them so that one device is always off-site, even when a backup is being performed.