Your back-up tips... and tantrums

Since silicon.com revealed at the start of the week that a fifth of corporate laptops don't get backed up we have been hearing from readers who say it's an easy problem to rectify - and others who say they have been at the sharp end of such lax practice.

One reader wrote: "This must represent an absolute fortune in valuable data that is wandering around the country at very high risk. Portables are renowned for their unreliability in terms of being dropped, 'walking away under new ownership', or generally not working when needed."

He proposes a simple solution - using a remote back-up service over the web. Internet-enabled back-up and taking the problem into your own hands were recurring themes in our feedback. In fact the original research found 32 per cent of IT managers do leave back-up to end users.

Several IT managers who contacted us are more on the ball. Richard Hall, IT editorial business manager at PA News, told us: "I think I back up my laptop fairly well - I use Iomega's software to copy important folders (My Documents etc.) to an Iomega Peerless 20GB removable storage unit. I store [that] in a fire-proof drawer when I am not in the office."

But he added: "I am responsible for the company's business continuity and disaster recovery arrangements so I suspect I am more aware of back-up procedures than most."

Another IT expert, Andrew Hodges, European IT Project Manager at Foseco FS, sounded even more impressive. "When a user loses his laptop for any reason we can prep a laptop out of an image and the user can have a replacement in two hours," he said. "It's very simple and easy to implement. The only obstacle was convincing stubborn users that the large C drive was not wasted. People just like to brag about the size of their hardware!"

Invariably education on the role of end users in the back-up process is a problem. One sad tale emailed to us ended with this exchange:

Financial director: "My laptop has been stolen!" IT manager: "Did you back it up on the file server last night like you're supposed to?" FD: "Me? I thought you did it?" IT man: "How am I supposed to back up your laptop when you have it at home?" FD: "You mean it's not backed up?" IT man: "Of course not, unless you did it." FD: "You stupid bastard, you're fired."

Tell us your tales of back-up woe or wizardry. Email editorial@silicon.com