Reasons to Back Up Data
- Physical failure of the computer’s hard drive: Almost certainly at some point in time the hard drive will fail, sometimes without warning.
- Floppy disks are for temporary storage, not permanent storage. Floppies go bad quickly.
- Power failure or spikes to your computer will lose data not currently or recently saved. If a power surge fries the computer’s motherboard, the file allocation table of the hard drive is lost.
- Virus attacks to the computer can destroy data files.
- Simply moving data from one location to another isn’t backing up information. You should have at least two copies of the data.
- For the best protection of data or photo files have at least three copies: the original files, an easily-accessible backup, and a protected copy.
Local Backups
- Save data to any of the various media such as CD/DVDs, external hard drives, USB Flash drives, or a Windows Home Server or Mirra.
- Store the data offsite at another location or in a bank safety deposit box.
- Do not store data in a basement if the area can be flooded.
Online “Cloud” Backup
- Store data online, making the information accessible from anywhere with a password.
- Email your book data files to one of your email accounts as an additional backup.
Steps to Backing Up Data
- Make note of the data files to be saved.
- Back up the most important data files first.
- Set a schedule for regular backing up or set the backup software to do so automatically.
- Verify the backed up information.
