As I am rereading parts of the Virtual Assistanct The Series I am beginning to wonder about the Disaster recovery plan I should have. Does anyone have any suggestions? A lock box with CD Backup? A Safe? What plans do you have in place? Do you discuss these plans with the client in the beginning or only when asked?

Any thoughts would help.

Great Question! I have a 160G external hard drive that I save all documents to. I also save my program .EXE's to it as well. For documents completed for clients and or project that have been completed. I normally burn those to CD and put it in my clients file.

Glad you asked this question. I look forward to hearing others answers to it

Andrea~

__________________
Action Jackson Virtual Assistant|

I am using Carbonite which backs up 24/7 and also Click Free external hard drive. It is effortless and nothing I have to do at all manually like the Maxtor hard drive I have too. The only thing I like about the Maxtor is that I can find exactly what I am looking for since I label the files myself. With ClickFree they use all kinds of numbers and codes, hate that. But I like backing up three ways. I have over a million files on my hard drive and would hate to lose even one of those million. I never backed up to a CD, I think that would be a pain for me anyway. But I would burn CDs for clients that way but just not for me, I am constantly changing my files daily, adding, deleting and updating. I would use a flash drive only for portability purposes. If you have a second computer you may want to store some files there too. HTH

__________________
JoCarole
http://www.shoreofficeservices.com

More homework, as I have never hear about any of these programs or devices you are both discussing. Thank you Andrea and Jocarole for your suggestions I have more to read before I start.

I was planning on putting backup files on my server through my FTP, this way I have a good backup.

Also, I know of someone that can do ghosting backup's on computers and was thinking about that service. It was explained to me that if my computer died, they could take this ghosting file and put it back onto my computer. This would replace all my files and my software programs. Think I can get this for about $20 a month per computer.

Robyn

__________________
Wiemer's Business Services LLC

Keep in mind that being prepared for a disaster goes way beyond just having files backed up. That's a start, but you also have to think about where you would operate, how you would gain Internet access, do you have a temporary office to work out of... lots of things to consider. You've started in a great place by checking out the chapter in Virtual Assistant - The Series. Be sure to also look at the sample plan that's included.

Kelly

__________________
Kelly Poelker |

Will take a look at it But I do have multiple computers and an alternate office space to work out of within an hour from my home. Wouldn't be convenient, but it would work until you get your home office back online.

Thanks for the information.
Robyn

__________________
Wiemer's Business Services LLC

You may also want to check out Diana Ennen and Patty Gale's book, Home Office Recovery Plan (http://www.va-theseries.com)

__________________
Kelly Poelker |

Think they would have this at the library. Planning on running there tomorrow evening ( only time it is open after work ) to look up some of the books I see on the site here.

__________________
Wiemer's Business Services LLC

I keep all files on a password-protected portable hard drive and backup all of my files to a SEPARATE portable hard drive weekly. There are NO client files resident on my computer - only software (this is protection against theft as well as, say, a house fire).

The second hard drive is kept in a safety deposit box at my bank. Every Friday after work I take my laptop with the primary hard drive to the bank, get the backup drive out of the safety deposit box, complete a backup of the new files onto the second drive and then put the second drive back in the safety deposit box.

Sounds like a pain, right? BUT - my bank is 5 minutes from the house and it would be fairly easy to replicate a week's worth of files. The whole process takes less than 30 minutes/week and means that I won't lose client data should something happen to the laptop (theft, fire, hard-drive crash, etc.).

I also keep the software disks in the safety deposit box. On the rare occasion that I purchase downloaded software, I download the .exe file to my desktop and then burn a copy to a cd-rom for backup and place it in the safety deposit box, as well.

__________________
Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

I work on my hard drive, Norton backs up all my files and programs to 1 smaller external hard drive, and a 2nd external hard drive holds exact copies of everything I do work wise. Although I do not as yet have any clients, I have brought work home on many occasions and have always had this practice. I have lost many photo's over the years until I got my act together.

__________________
VA-Karen
www.elite-va.com