The importance of data backups

Backing up data is important because the data is on is deleted, device is hacked or corrupted, the data can be accessed and restored from another medium. It is recommended to backup anything of value, be it family member photos, CVs, reports or invoices. Data could be backed up to the cloud or to a local removable media.


When backing up data to the cloud, it could be easily be accessed from the Internet. Apple iCloud, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive offer between 5GB and 15 GB free storage space that could be used for backups. It is suitable to back up the most important data but not enough to back up many large files. It is crucial to have fast and stable Internet connection to make successful backups to the cloud. Another consideration is that if using metered Internet connection, data backups to the cloud might be too expensive to perform. It is essential to protect access to the cloud with a strong password and enable multi-factor authentication in order to keep the data confidential. Advantages of backing up to the cloud include the option of data being backed up automatically. In this case the
user does not have to remember to do it and they are more likely to have a recent copy of data being backed up.


When backing up data to a removable media, an external hard drive, a USB stick or thumb drive or an SD card could be used. This method allows to back up large amounts of data, but disadvantage to it is the fact that the backups have to be scheduled and manually performed. Data on removable media should also be protected with a password in order to prevent unauthorised access to it. It is essential to regularly check that the data in the cloud or on the removable media has indeed been backed up. This is to ensure that automatic backups to the cloud have not been disabled or the removable medium has not been corrupted. 

If deleted data needs to be recovered, it is recommended to look in the recycle bin when using Windows OS. It is worth noting that the recycle bin has a size limit and once it is exceeded the older files get automatically deleted. It is also advisable to check if the file was shared through email or other media. Failing that, a data recovery software could be used. One of the popular ones is the commercially available Disk Digger. Disk Digger does not need to be installed, only downloaded and unzipped. Ideally, it should be downloaded before a deleted file needs to be recovered. That is because downloading it could overwrite the data and the deleted file will be lost forever. When launched, Disk Digger will scan the required drive and list the deleted files. Since the tool does not offer the correct names of the files, there is a preview option to identify a required file. After being successfully identified the file could be recovered.

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