Why you should backup important computer data regularly
With computers becoming more and more important for daily life, business and just about everything else - having a second copy of your data is a must. Backing up a computer is becoming simpler especially as technology increases. A lot of external hard drives include one touch’ backup or similar software. Most operating systems come with a built in backup program which allows the user to schedule backups at a regular basis.
The number one reason to backup data is to prevent the loss of data. It is impossible to tell when a computer will malfunction or completely cease to function. Unless a user backs up their computer numerous times day, it is impossible to retain all information in the event of data loss. If a computer does malfunction, having the important files backed up can allow the user to get back up and running much quicker.
There are two main types of backups available to users. A full or complete backup takes all of the data on the computer (programs and all) and makes a duplicate copy of it. Think of this as making a copy of a key. In case you lose the data or it is corrupted - everything is secure, and ready to be restored. While this is very convenient, it does have downsides. The major downfall to complete backups is that they take up a lot of memory, and that the actual backup process takes a long time.
It is not unusual for a user to have music, movies, television shows and photos on their computer. These media files take up a lot of space. A standard computer can have as little as 80GB of storage on it, and upwards of 500 GB or more. Making a backup of your data will essentially turn 80 GB of data into 160 GB of data. Complete backups can easily reduce the total amount of space available in your arsenal of hard drive space. These backups generally take anywhere between thirty and forty five minutes (although they can run longer), it depends on how much information is on the computer.
A more viable option for backing up data is to backup the important files on the computer. For some people, this data would be work documents or school work. Users can also manually choose to backup movies, music or other types of digital media (photos, for example). This type of backup is generally for the essential files, and in most cases takes less time to backup and uses much less space. The plus side to these backups is that they can be run more frequently, and if there is an issue where data is corrupted, the user will have a backup of the important data that they need on a daily basis.
The best way to ensure that your data remains safe is to develop a schedule. If you backup your data every Tuesday, you will always have a week old backup of your data. The problem is what happens if you backup on Tuesday, and then do some work on your computer Wednesday, right before your computer crashes? This is the issue with large weekly backups. The best solution is to do a mixture of both types of backups. Do weekly or bi-weekly full backups of your data, and backup important data as soon as it is updated. This way, important files are always backed up and you will never have a full computer backup that is more than a week old.
Earlier, a backup was compared to a copy of a house key. This copy, like a house key, should not be kept on your key ring (or in your hard drive). In most cases, if a computer fails the data on it will be lost. If your backup is in the computer - it will be lost as well. Purchasing an external hard drive is the best route for storing backups. They are fairly inexpensive and best of all, portable. These drives can be carried around on vacation or back and forth from work. Some people go above and beyond the normal backup, and create two copies of every backup. One copy is kept on an external drive with the computer, and the other is kept off site. This way, the data is completely safe off site, in the event of an emergency. Going this far is not completely necessary, unless the information in your backup is very important.
Backing up a computer is one of the easiest and safest things that a user can do to ensure that data is never corrupted. The more often a backup is done, the better off a user will be. While it is nearly impossible to ensure that a backup is one-hundred per cent current, a backup from last week is better than no backup at all. It is important to remember that sometimes backups can be corrupt and that the more copies that exist, the safer off a user is. More than two copies of any one backup starts to become redundant.
The key points to remember are that backing up ensures that your data is never lost. Important files should be backed up as soon as they have been updated, while entire systems should be backed up every week or every other week. Backups should never be kept on the hard drive that is being backed up. They should be kept on an external hard drive or a USB flash drive (important files).
Tags: backup, Computers, data, hard drive, Storage
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