Luckily, in most cases their data can be retrieved and a valuable lesson can be learned. But for some the data is not recoverable. Data recovery is one part of my job which is very emotional, especially when the data that I am entrusted to save is that of family pictures. But once the data is recovered they are elated and forever thankful that you recovered the last pictures of a recently passed away relative or their newly born child.

The best thing you can do so you don’t have to worry about data loss is to prevent it by backing up, storing and archiving your data, whether that be your family pictures or important documents on your home computer.

Now at this point you are probably wondering “Why does Matt keep saying backing up, storing and archiving?” Well that is because there really is three ways to preserve your data.

Storage Everyone has Storage – it’s your “current projects,” your “work in progress,” or just your “hard drive.” You need to store data safely and securely but you also need to have access to it. In general, losing your Storage means losing current data, so you need more than just Storage to have peace of mind.

Backup is a frequent and regular process of copying your most vital data to a secure place. Backup routines should be run frequently and on a regular schedule. Constantly overlooked, Backup has no value until you lose data – and then its value can be as much as your computer is worth.

Archive An Archive is Storage that grows old. More like a museum than a library, archives are data that needs to be accessible but also safe and secure for years.

The life of an archive also needs to be considered. Will the storage media that you choose last as long as you need it to – sometimes 10-20 years? How do you know that the data you’re archiving to will even be a readable format by then?

Now don’t get worried and think you must buy tons of external hard drives or CD-R’s to fulfill the above recommendations. In reality you can easily fulfill them by doing basically what you are doing now with some minor additions.

Since your data is stored on your computers hard drive, most likely your primary one, the first step would be to purchase an external hard drive. I highly recommend, at the time of writing this article, the Seagate FreeAgent or Western Digital Passport.

Back-up Software

Here comes the part most people do not know how to do… scheduling your computer to make a copy of your files onto your external hard drive.

After years of testing many different back-up software with scheduling capabilities I have come to find that 2BrightSparks SyncBack program to be the best on the market. Not only can it be used to back-up your files locally to an external hard drive but you can utilize it to back-up your files to an on-line server or off-site to your office.

For home back-up use I would recommend using SyncBackSE.

If you are implementing a business back-up plan I would recommend using SyncBackPro since it has more features and flexibility to fulfill your needs now and in the future as your business grows.

Archiving

It’s like having a spare for your spare. Pretty simple. You have two locations for your data already, first is your computer’s hard drive (Storage), second is your external hard drive (Back-up). Got it? Good!

Well what if there is a fire or a flood? Oh, wait, both are out in the open and exposed to such unthinkable events… this is where having a third line of back-up or archiving comes into play.

What I like to do is have gather enough pictures on my computer’s hard drive and back-up hard drive that I can put onto a DVD-R, which is usually around 4.5 GB (4,500 MB). When that occurs I use a quality archival DVD-R, not your standard Staples value-pack DVD-R’s that you get for $9.99 during back-to-school sale, but a professional archival grade DVD-R.

There are two brands that I trust my family pictures, important documents and business information on for archival purposes and those two are the Verbatim Ultra-Life Gold and Mitsui Gold Archive.

Although the archival DVD-R’s above will extend your data’s shelf life it does not protect your data from fire and flooding. I highly recommend that you store any and all archival data into a fireproof and waterproof safe for added protection.

In Conclusion

I hope this article helped you understand the importance of having redundancy for your most valuable data. Remember, when your data is gone it may not always be able to be retrieved.

If you purchase or currently have an external hard drive but neglected to start a back-up routine or still don’t understand how to use it please contact me as soon as possible so you are protected against data loss!

Having a brand new external hard drive that is collecting dust won’t do you any good when your computer’s hard drive fails.

If you have any questions regarding protecting your valuable data please feel free to contact me today.