Take a look at the video below for more information. If you have any questions relating to hard drive data destruction please call us on 01-8424114.

Thankfully, there are now 3rd party websites which can send large files on your behalf. One of these companies, Dropsend allow you to send files up to a massive 1GB to your intended recipient. You Send It is another alternative. 

Note: We usually recommend not to send any attachments to colleagues internally. Instead, you should be copying the files to your shared folders and hyperlinking as required.

Understandably, most people faced with his prospect usually begin with a gentle email reminding staff that the shared drive is for office use only.

Initially, this will reduce space to a small degree and it may remind employee’s that the server is not a dumping ground for mp3 files, photographs, movies and various other space hungry file formats. This is good practice but it very rarely yields any dramatic reductions in space. Instead, a simple program like Tree Size Free or the professional version will enable you to scan your disk drive or folder and inform you instantly where the bulk of the disk space is being used. The professional version for example, will not only give you excellent reports and graphs but it will tell you the last time certain files were even accessed, thereby giving you some insight into whether the file(s) are actually in use.

A lack of active data management not only leads to disk capacity issues, but it will almost always affect your backups and their ability to run reliably.

Password Rules

A strong password contains the following characteristics:

• A combination of at least eight characters in length and contains upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and non-alphabetic characters
• At least three characters from each of the previous character types
• It should be different from other previously used passwords by more than one character

A strong password should not contain the following:

• Your user name, real name, or company name
• A complete dictionary word
• Do not leave the password blank

For best practive on password Do’s and Don’ts click here. In my experience though, after enforcing these policies, it means that your employee’s will inevitably use more IT resources than usual. In today’s world we simply have too many pin numbers, online banking credentials and passwords to remember which invariably means that we will forget them from time to time.

So this means you can leave it up to your employee’s, trusting them to initiate their own strong passwords or enforce it centrally from your network domain controller.

The floppy drive requiem has been more or less already written which begs the question; which is next?

There are many Tape Formats; DLT, LTO, DAT, etc and to be honest I have never had any problem with either type. They’ve always been reliable and excellent for off site data storage. Historically, whenever I spec a Server for a customer that is working from a tight budget and RAID is just a step too far for them, I usually consider the following;

1. At least 2 separate internal disks at least 250GB+ in size. We then ensure that a nightly disk-to-disk backup is performed. I like to compare this to a spare tyre scenario. If one of the disks fails, the other one has the most recent copy of the data and can be used as a temporary replacement. You can reinstall your system (no format) from the working disk drive and your data is all there from the most recent backup. This means there is no waiting for parts during a potential crisis. You can replace the punctured tyre later on without having to give your support technician the “I need it now!!” speech.. The chances of both disks failing are low and data is easily recovered during the system rebuild.

2. But, every business must have an offsite backup and right now, tape is the most common and obvious choice. Your company server may have two physical disks but if your server is lost, stolen, damaged your spare tyre is a bit useless.

Offsite storage is essential for any business that takes their data seriously which means that choosing the best option is vitally important. The tape is small, affordable and tangible which for most business owners is enough. Online disk backup is young! At present there are websites offering free storage for users. XDRIVE for example, is currently offering 5gb for free. There’s an Irish Company to keep an eye on called Keep It Safe that offers comprehensive and professional online backup from €30 a month upwards depending on the plan you choose. It’s great to see Irish Companies seizing this concept and even better to have Irish Companies providing it.

This is an emerging new market and there’s absolutely no doubt that it is the future. The question remains, When? Well, I’m not going to predict the end of the Tape just yet but with online storage improving by the day we’ll just have to wait and see.