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I expect the first question you will ask, other than "What
is a backup?", is "why is this topic in the Computer Health
section?". If you're the subject of an unhealthy loss of data,
you need a way of restoring it back to the lovely healthy PC that
you currently have.
Taking backups of your data is probably not something you've
thought of if you're new to computing.
Seriously though, I've heard the term "Backups? I'm
far too busy to take backups!" all too often. Having
backup's of your files is very important, especially if you
are busy creating the files in the first place. You need to
ask yourself two vital questions.
How valuable are your files?
How will if affect you, if you lost all of your entire disk
contents instantly?
What would cause this? Well, there are a number of causes
attributed to loosing your data.
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Hard disk failure. Hard disk failure's
can happen at anytime, caused include incorrect handling,
a shock to the drive, mechanical failure, a physical scratch
on the disk etc. When this happens, 99% of the time the
data on the disk is unrecoverable. |
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Virus attack. If you are unlucky
enough to be infected with a nasty virus, then depending
on the type of virus, your operating system might get
damaged, documents get corrupted, files deleted, email
contacts get deleted etc. |
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User error. It's very easy to accidentally
delete an important file, or overwrite it with something
else. Even accidentally changing the contents of a document
might cause you to need a backup. |
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File corruption. Occasionally files
can just get corrupted. Perhaps your application crashed
when you were in the process of saving your document...
or your PC turning off with a power failure. This might
cause the document to be corrupt and unusable. |
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Hardware theft. Imagine if you were
burgled, your PC gone. What would you do without your
documents, email contacts, company accounts etc. If you
run a business, this could bankrupt you. |
Very important points, take notice of them. Make copies of
your data as regularly as possible, perhaps on a CDR or CDRW.
Never use Floppy disks, contrary to popular belief,
this is the most unreliable media to store your files! Floppy
disks can be erased simply by placing your mobile phone too
close. Of course if this is all that is available to you,
then it's certainly better than nothing.
Check your backup's regularly, especially if you are using
floppy disks. Do not use the same backup media (Floppy Disk,
CDR, Zip Disk) for every backup if you can help it, as you
might find your backup copy of your company accounts is corrupt
from 'the power cut last week'!
Of course how far you go in protecting your data, is entirely
up to you. |
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