At some point in life, we all lose data stored on our computer so it is important to make a backup of your data time to time. There are multiple reasons that we may lose data.

  • Due to sudden hard drive failure
  • Software viruses are the main cause of lost files
  • A ransomware takes over the computer, denying access to your data.
  • A software malfunction or a software upgrade can damage or destroy data
  • A file can be deleted mistakenly at some point

Apart from these tech-related reasons your laptop may be lost, stolen or damaged as a result of fire or flood. If you have not taken backups of your data you lose everything forever: images, audio and video files, software and most important the files that you created yourself as part of your work.

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Different data backup options

What is Data Backup?

To make a copy of all the files, folders and programs stored on your computer and then save them somewhere else.

Not all data on your computer requires backing up. You can reinstall your operating system and the drivers, no need to worry about them.  Same is true of software and other electronic resources that you purchased sometimes back, you can re-download them.

The real challenge is the data that you created yourself as part of your business or job, it is irreplaceable and you cannot find it anywhere else on the internet. This personal data must frequently be backed up otherwise all your hard work spanning over days, months or years is sure to be wasted.

Back up Media

  • USB Flash Drives

USB Flash Drives are like small hard drives no longer than two inches in length and are commonly used to move and store data. You can store up to 2TB of data in these tiny sticks. Problem with a Flash Drive is that because of their size they are easy to lose or leave behind.

  • External Hard Drives

An external hard drive is similar to the hard drive on your desktop or laptop, the difference is, it is external and easy to move around. Compared to a Flash drive, they are durable and offer large storage capacity and you can take back up of your digital content up to 16 TB. They come at all sizes and prices and some of them are marketed as ‘waterproof’ and ‘shockproof. The downside of an external drive is that they can be lost, stolen or get damaged.

  • Cloud Storage

You can take backup of your data with different suppliers like Google drive offering cloud-based storage on the internet, all you need is an internet connection. Some suppliers offer initial free plans where you can take backup of your limited data. Free storage plans by different suppliers are:

o    Mega 50 GB

o    Google 15 GB

o    MediaFire 5 GB

o    Dropbox 2 GB

The drawback is that if you have a slower internet connection will take time to upload your data, second if a supplier closes downs all your data is lost.