1. Backup your data off-site
2. Backup your current and previous data versions
3. Backup your configuration files

Just as in Real Estate where location is everything, keeping reliable backup copies of your data is of paramount importance to small business computing. I don't trust computers, I just use them. Be sure to always take a copy of your valuable business data off-site at least once a week in case of disaster. You should also have live mirrored copies of current and previous versions of your files to eliminate the human error factor. Registry, configuration, and topology files should be backed up as well to save downtime when something goes wrong. If everything comes apart at the seams it's nice to know how to put it all back together again quickly. Always make a system disk and keep it handy. If you have an actual NT or Windows 2000 server it is a good idea to set up a backup or spare domain server. Nothing fancy, an older system will do. Everyone still needs to be able to log in when the primary goes down. Be sure to test the backup domain server by shutting down the primary server and trying to log on. If you do not have a fast, easy to use, reliable backup system in place, you are just simply asking for trouble. An extra IDE hard drive only costs a little over $100, a SCSI drive is about $200. How much is a day's, a week's, or even a month's or more worth of lost work worth to you? Just having a backup drive does not help if you don't use it everyday. Data does not back itself up by osmosis. You need some kind of an automatic backup system in place. I like it when the tape backup system does a complete backup once a week, does incremental backups every night, and emails a reminder to the local sysadmin to send the tape home with the CEO. Nearly idiot proof.

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