Pay attention to a wise old saying

JPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek Martin

PAY ATTENTION! It is an old phrase, because it happens to be a very wise one.

Always have a back up and better still, a back up to your back up.

What is he wittering on about now?

Data security covers many areas in the digital age. Arguably the most important area, is backing up your data. While real, proper, actual, disastrous hard drive crashes are rare, they do happen.

When a hard drive gives up the ghost, there is very little you (personally) can do to recover the data. There are specialists in data recovery that may be able to do the job for you, but it is costly.

A far better approach, is to ensure you are making regular backups to your data. So if something does go wrong with your computer, you have your data safely tucked away somewhere else.

There are various methods you can employ to backup your information and protect it from hard disk failure. Two of the most common are cloud storage and external hard disks or memory sticks.

If you are only backing up a small amount of data, then you may find you can get plenty of cloud storage space for free. If your data backup requirements are greater, then shop around for the cloud service that is right for you. There are plenty to choose from.

Be aware that the more information you have to backup, the longer it will take to synchronise with the cloud.

So what was that I was saying about backing up your back ups? Just that. You really cannot rely on any one backup solution.

If you only use an external hard drive, make sure you use at least two and alternate them. I have first hand experience with people that thought their machines were nicely backing up, but failed to alternate drives. Then when their machine went poof, they discovered their ‘primary’ backup drive had also gone poof. Not good.

The same goes for cloud storage. It is not impossible for cloud storage systems to have issues. Imagine a situation where all of your data gets wiped and then the deletions all get synchronised with your machine.

You had better have a back up.

Alan Stainer http://www.alansitsolutions.com