May 31, 2011. Paul Hixon
With the increasing storage capacity of hard drives, and the increase in the number of files that we store on the drives, there is also an increased chance of needing to backup those files. Data backup isn’t something that everyone thinks about, but it is an important aspect of computing that most should think about.
Over time, and with a lot of use, the internal hard drives in a computer can crash. Such crashes also has the potential of losing some, or all of the data files that is stored on the hard drive. Losing all of the data on a hard drive is something that no one wants to go through.
The best way to avoid such a situation is to regularly backup the files that are stored on the hard drive. Backing up data doesn’t need to be complex – but it needs to be done.
An external hard drive is a popular choice for backing up data. Simply copying data to the external drive provides a copy of the data that will be safe if the internal hard drive crashes.
Another choice is optical discs, such as CD or DVD discs. These have been popular for years, but store much less data than an external hard drive. Also, optical discs are known to become unreadable after a period of time. Still, if you don’t have a lot of data, and will make regular copies of your data, then an optical disc may be what you could use.
Another solution, one that is fairly new to home networks, is to make use of a server to copy the data onto. A server doesn’t need to be fancy, a simple NAS device or an extra desktop can function as a server. There is more information on how you can create a storage server on Technically Easy.
However you backup your data, you must ensure that you understand how to follow the backup plan, and to do so on a regular basis.
Updated May 31, 2011. Published February 3, 2011. Paul Hixon
