Sallie Goetsch at Fileslinger.com

If you need additional backup information or help, Sallie from Fileslinger.com has a great resource.  She may recommend some different programs than I do here but the philosophy is the same.  Multiple locations of data.  After Interviewing Sallie, I came to respect her views even more as her opinions are honest and accurate as you'll soon find out in the interview.  I don't see her backing some product, just because.

Q: What was your inspiration, or what was the purpose of you starting the Fileslinger backup blog?
A: Back in 2003, when I was still doing tech-support work, a client suggested that I should send out a reminder to my clients about backing up, because he was always forgetting to. So the Backup Reminder was born, first as just that--a literal reminder by e-mail. Then as an e-zine. And finally, in 2005, as a blog.

Q: I noticed that you have tested many different programs as far as backups go. 
With an unorganized file system structure, if you had to pick 1 or 2 programs somebody would easily be able to pick up and use that would be reliable, what would you recommend and why?
A: If you really want something dead easy, go with the Rebit. It backs up everything indiscriminately, so it doesn't matter how disorganized you are.  All you have to do is plug it in. Mac users are pretty well fixed with Time Machine and an external drive.

Q: For a user without a home internet connection, what would you recommend they do for a backup?
A: I think everyone should have an external hard drive, even if you also back up online. While it's great to get your data off-site, uploading large quantities of data through what passes for high-speed Internet in this country takes forever. An XHD is the quickest thing to recover from. Just realize that it will only protect you from failure of your main machine, but not from fire or theft. And even if you don't leave it running as often as your main drive, it, too, will eventually wear out and need to be replaced.  Back up your backups!

How I think about backing up a persons computer often comes down to what they want to backup.  The next questions pertain to the common backup questions I get asked.  So far, everyone has had a medium to high speed internet connection if that effects your answer.

Q: I only need to backup some word / excel documents, and some pictures, what backup would you recommend?
A: You can easily use online backup for that, even one of the limited free accounts.

Q: I want to backup lots of videos, a hard drive image, and have a ton of pictures, what backup is right for me?
A: You need a large external hard drive or a NAS (network attached storage) drive. You always want your backup drive to be larger than the drive you're backing up, particularly if you're making drive images. In general, I wouldn't recommend trying to back up very large files online--at least not if you were planning to do anything else with your Internet connection or your computer. But you might want to make copies of some of these things onto DVD and move them offsite, or store a second XHD in a safe deposit box.

Q: I wasn't sure I needed a backup, I just save my contacts and emails on my Outlook.  What should I do to make sure I haven't lost my years of contacts?
A: Back up your Outlook PST file. Many backup software programs won't do this, because they look for things stored in My Documents, or because they're designed to run in the background, and most programs can't back up Outlook while it's running. Windows likes to bury your PST file in deep places, and not even to show it to you unless you have the "show hidden files and folders" option turned on, and that makes it even harder to back up. There's a Personal Folders Backup tool for Outlook 2002-2007 available at the Microsoft website.

Q: I'm hoping you answer this question Sallie, it's one I get asked a lot but I know it's something you really don't deal with all the time.  I'm going to ask simply because there is a little gray area between home backup and business backup when somebody just barely starts a business and shares the same computer with their home computer.  The question you may have guessed.  What backup would you recommend for someone in this situation?  If you have no recommendations on software, is their a business they should approach?
A: I work from home and I don't have separate systems for backing up personal and business data. For instance, I have different bank accounts for business and personal money, and different e-mail accounts for business and personal communication. But I track both business and personal accounts in the same Quicken program, and I read both business and personal e-mail in the same Outlook program.

The main thing is, if you have business data, you need to have more layers of backups, and you have to be aware of any laws governing retention of certain kinds of data. All of us have to hold onto tax-related data for 7 years in case of audits, but some types of business have to have much more comprehensive retention policies because they're governed by Sarbanes-Oxley or something like that. So when you go into business, check to see whether any regulations like that apply to you. If they do, you might need to buy special enterprise products and services to handle your backup and archiving.

In most cases, people starting home-based businesses can use consumer backup products. Eventually they may need to expand to something that covers multiple computers, and something that syncs between an outside office and a home office. KineticD is aiming its online backup and file sharing service at people whose businesses have outgrown that just-one-computer-at-home phase.

As a business owner, you need to think about the fact that you have confidential client data on your computer, and look for products that encrypt your backups. You also want redundancy: make backups of your backups. Use both an online and an offline backup tool. I tried out Dmailer a while ago: their idea was to do both in one package. I actually tend to use multiple file-based backup tools myself, plus image backups, but I'm a geek.

Q: Have you ever had to learn the lesson of lost data the hard way, or have you always been prepared just in case?
A: I haven't had catastrophic data losses myself--I've been fortunate enough to have my important files backed up, so I've never lost anything significant.
And I haven't had a drive failure; my computers have come to other ends. But I've helped clients through serious drive failures and data loss incidents, and it's not pretty.

Q: In the next year or 2, what direction do you see your blog taking to meet the needs of the readers?
A: I think I'm going to have to find some assistant writers in order to be able to keep producing content consistently. The demands of my real work (www.author-izer.com and www.podcastasylum.com) don't leave me enough time to do justice to the blog.