Computers have become a part of our lives. We rely so much on them that we seldom keep hard copies of important documents, pictures etc in our cabinets and just stay comfortable if we have them on our computer’s hard drive. But what if the hard drive goes bad? What if the computer which has important data gets lost or theft? If something of this sort happens to your computer than the first question which anybody will ask you will be – do you have the backup? If your answer to this question is “Yes”, then there is no panic, but if the answer is “No”, then you will find yourself in serious trouble. One should always keep in mind that the computer system is yet another electronic device and is ought to fail at some point in time. It is just a piece of expensive commodity and can be stolen or get lost. One should always be prepared for such cases if they happen. In this post we will tell you about the backup techniques so that you at least have a copy of your important data in such scenarios.
There are many ways and data storage techniques by which you can keep a copy of data safe at some other place. Let’s discuss some of them which are most widely and commonly used.
External Drives: External drives are the best and the most commonly used mode of taking the backup. Backup and restore technique may be different but people mostly rely on external drives. This kind of backup can be taken on DVD Disks, CD Disks, Tape Drives (Rarely used now), External Hard Drives etc. whatever the drive type be you should always keep a copy of your important data at some other place for restoring it back in case of any mishap.
Online Backup: This is another widely used and accepted mode of keeping the data safe. This is done by saving the data at some third remote location which is a server or data storage service provider’s computer. There are many online data backup service providers available now and they charge a very nominal price for providing this service to you. Charges are proportional to the amount of storage space you acquire on their servers. Larger the space, more the amount they charge.
Network: If you computer is on a Network then the best way to safe guard your data is on the network share drive. This enables you to share space allocated to you which can only be accessed by you and you can keep your data safe on that space. Servers are generally kept in secured, water proof, fire proof vicinities and chances of your data getting lost from there is very low.
Above I have mentioned the places where you can save your data; now let’s see what all data you should backup.
Personal Folders: Folders like Desktop, and Documents are the ones on which we keep the maximum of our personal data. If your computer is shared by others as well then Desktop and Documents are the folders which stay private and others don’t get access to them. Generally we keep are personal files and folders on these two locations so backup of these locations is really important.
Emails: These days the maximum of communication happens only on Emails and of you are using any Email client like Outlook or Outlook Express then backup of Emails is also very important. If you do not use Email clients then there is no need of Email backup because they are already safe on the Email Server.
Lastly since its your computer so you are the best one to tell what is important and what is not. So whatever is important should be backup up on regular basis to avoid such situation.
