Data that Needs Regular Backup

Autor: jameswalsh

No hardware problem can be dealt by them, and complicated software flaws are also beyond the limits of standard DIY. Besides, there are certain kinds of data that have a tendency to get fragmented if not regularly maintained in a properly filed condition. Somehow, this data is often what we use most frequently.

The Importance of Backups

To prevent such sad mishaps, we need to save certain data regularly. This does not mean that we update the file on the hard disk every day, but essentially we take backups regularly. A backup is useful only if it is outside the existing location. Instead of stacking up the data of C drive in a folder on D drive (as many users actually do, especially those who use laptops with the recovery disk partitioned in), we need to take these backups on a CD or DVD or USB drive. In case the data is very heavy, or we expect it to grow over time, the wisest backup investment is to buy an external hard disk and keep loading it with your regular backup files. Below are some examples of data that typically need regular backup.

Address Book

We have long discarded the habit of writing names and addresses on little bits of paper or in pocket phone books. These paper backups are still handy, and when you need to jot down something very fast, they are still better than even the cell phone, but ideally we should take the data out of them and keep recording it in a digital format somewhere else too. Then why do you need to back up the address book backup?

Remember how your friend dropped his mobile in a bowl of soup or how a colleague’s laptop just fell from her hands? Tomorrow that may happen to you too.

An address book is often updated with new information. Taking regular backups makes sense.

Since you update it often, there is chance of file fragmentation.

Mailbox

Another folder that we all have on our programme drives and almost never back up is the default mailbox. This is where all our important mails are stored offline as well.

It is very common to lose one’s mailbox when the Operating System crashes.

Taking a regular backup is the only way to work since we send and receive mails everyday.

A mailbox can act as another source for contact details and it is best to take backups of it.

A daily backup is again a good way to prevent data loss through fragmentation, which has every chance to happen with letters saved under long file names and updated indiscriminately, letting the file grow longer.

For those who run a business, a personal mailbox is very important and private. Taking printed copies of important letters and keeping them in a safe place is an orthodox but safe method. Apart from this, the usual softcopy backup must be obtained too.

Personal Photographs and Video Collections

Photo and video files happen to be quite large. The same applies to songs that you may have dumped from a CD or clips that you have downloaded from the internet.

Media files are large, and they take up a lot of space. Taking regular backups is like a disk cleanup by the user.

Media files also have more chance to get corrupted thanks to their size and content, so they are best off on a CD or DVD.
Backing up media files regularly is a good habit that can save you from scrambling for backups suddenly one day as you get an alert that announces that the disk is just too full and the system slows down ominously.

Personal Memo

Personal memoranda contain all those daily details that you write immediately, and don’t back up. So when you are looking for a particular phone number or a quick recap of how you had tracked your work, it is lost – unless you had kept the daily backup – and not on the C drive.

Account Details

A lot of people have the habit of keeping personal banking and email details stored offline. This is both unsafe and foolish. Such details are precious and dangerous and must be backed up regularly.

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