By then, you'll likely be in a panic and need an expensive call to your small business computer consultant.

Take time to ask questions now and take good notes on how to check to make sure any automated backup routines are running properly, that data is making it onto the tape as expected, and that you can handle any required manual restore and backup procedures.

Also, add a recurring small business computer support event to your Outlook calendar to test your tape backup system, at least once a month, to make sure you can successfully restore a group of files.