world backup day.
World Backup Day is on March 31st.
In 2011, digital consultant Ismail Jadun conceived the idea when he saw a Reddit post by a tech user who had lost his hard drive and wished someone had reminded him to back up the data.
The original idea for the March 31st date was a humorous reference to April Fool's Day on April 1st which symbolizes the idea that you would have to be a fool not to backup your data.
It’s a day for people to learn about the increasing role of data in our lives and the importance of regular backups. It’s also a day to talk about the enormous task of preserving our increasingly digital heritage and cultural works for future generations.
The day also raises awareness of the various ways data is at risk if not backed up from devices, being hacked or stolen, to accidental deletion and viruses.
Therefore, world backup day should be on our mind every day.
what is backup.
When you back up your data, you're making a second copy of anything and everything that you don't want to lose. Should something happen to the originals, you can restore the backups to your computer or phone with a backup service.
Technically, a backup just refers to any piece of data that exists in two places. The primary purpose of a backup is to have a recovery plan should the primary data become inaccessible, so it's common to keep backups offsite like online or, at the very least, on a second hard drive, even another internal one.
why should I backup.
In this modern digital w orld, we depend more and more on data. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of ways to suddenly have things go terribly wrong.
There’s nothing more traumatizing than losing your phone, or having your hard drive crash, and having hundreds of valuable and irreplaceable documents, a college paper or your cherished family photos, suddenly disappear and you can’t figure out how to recover it.
Losing files is way more common than you’d think. One small accident or failure could destroy all the important data you care about.
You may feel your computer is safe, but 1 in 10 of all computers, including household and business computers, are infected with a virus that may suddenly cause all of your data to be gone.
Even more so, many of us live from our phones. Whether it’s for business, or just personal use, these electronic devices often contain gigs of valuable documents, pictures, videos, and music.
Yet, research shows that 1/3 of people have never backed up their data.
Therefore, we can't stress enough the importance of routine data backup. It’s a lot easier to take the steps to prevent losing your data than it is to recover it after something happens.
tips for backing up your data.
Unfortunately, every day businesses and individuals lose their information for good simply because they fail to follow one of the most basic of data related tasks: backup.
The good news is that backup isn’t that hard to do right. The hardest part is just getting around to doing it properly, or even at all.
Here are some simple tips that will help you to keep both your work and your home data safe.
follow the 3-2-1 rule.
Having your data stored in multiple storage spaces will keep it more secure, especially if one storage space fails, for example, if your external hard drive is lost or broken. Following the 3-2-1 rule is very simple and will ensure that your data is properly backed up. The rule states that you should have 3 copies of your data, 2 acting as backups and 1 acting as the master copy. The master copy will be the one you will be typically working and reading from; in terms of a computer this is the internal drive. The two backups should ideally be done in different forms of media, one of them acting as a local backup while the other is being kept off-site. External drives are typically the media of choice for local backups, while cloud storage is usually selected as the offsite backup.
choose the right option for you.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to data backup. External hard drives are a physical unit you plug directly into your computer. They can be used with a variety of devices so you can access your data anywhere. What you end up choosing will depend largely on your needs, desires and overall lifestyle. External SSDs can offer its users great portability and performance, all packed in very small dimensions. On the other hand, people who value high storage capacity more than speed, might find external HDDs their ideal solution. Cloud-based storage, on the other hand, is completely digital. It can be used across multiple devices. Using consumer services like iCloud, you can send your data across the Internet to a data center, where your information is stored in their storage arrays. There are relatively inexpensive monthly or annual subscriptions for the service, and you don’t have to buy any hardware.
set it and forget it.
Cloud-based storage and external hard drives both give you the option to set up automatic data backups on a recurring basis. This way, even in case of an emergency, you won’t have to worry about the last time you backed everything up.
protect against cyberattacks.
Unfortunately, the increase in technology use has also caused an increase in cybercrime. Backing up your data helps secure your information if your device becomes compromised. You’ll also need to make sure you’re running the latest antivirus software.
test your backup.
One of the worst things that could happen is finding out in the midst of an emergency that your backup isn’t working properly. Remember that you haven’t really backed anything up unless you can actually restore it. We’ve helped numerous people over the years who’ve made backups regularly and carefully, but weren’t able to get back the files they wanted when they needed to. Therefore, you should test your backups by scheduling and running some "restore drills” to get an idea of how long it takes to get the backup ready for restoring, how long it takes to restore all files, how easy it is to recover a specific file among your entire backup, and how reliably and seamlessly the process is running.
don’t put it off until tomorrow.
Remember Murphy’s Law? “In any field of endeavor anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”. Your computer systems and devices are not an exception to the rule. Regardless of how reliable and safe you think they are, there is always a chance you might lose your data without the possibility of recovering it. The only backup you will ever regret is the one you didn’t make.
your data is more valuable than your device.
Hardware is cheap and getting cheaper, while your data is getting more expensive or even priceless.
If something goes wrong, you can get a new computer or phone, but you can't replace the term paper you spent weeks on writing, years of collection of music and movies, video of your child’s first steps, or critical business data.
Let's make this year's world backup day a day when we finally stop saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” and make sure all our precious digital documents are protected.
Unfortunately, unforeseen things can still happen.
If anything goes wrong and you experience a data loss emergency, at home or at work, Kotar Data Recovery can recover your data from any device, any situation, any time.
