I am constantly amazed at how many people (and, I must say, companies) take a very casual attitude towards their data, rarely prioritizing any form of protection against disasters or data corruption or loss.

For an individual, it may just be a matter of years of regret if all the data on their computer is lost or thrown away, but for a company it may be corporate life or death. Very few organizations and fewer people are backing up their data on a regular basis and even fewer are doing it in a robust and secure way.

Data loss

First, let’s address the issue of data loss and its causes:

Consider the following scenarios, which could result in data loss or corruption

• The computer itself can be stolen or destroyed (for example, by fire)

• The data or system disk may fail and become unreadable; this can also be caused by a virus or ransomware infection.

• One or more files may be damaged or deleted, either accidentally or on purpose (also often by viruses or ransomware)

• A software change or user error can cause files to be accidentally encrypted or encryption access keys to be lost.

Assuming there are no backups, any of the above could mean the loss of valuable, even critical information. Many companies underestimate the losses that follow a disaster involving significant data loss by an order of magnitude: most would not survive!

For one person, it is possible to lose all their photos, all their family emails, all their financial records and downloaded music… While not life threatening, the emotional impact could be significant and the expense ( both cash and time) to recover it could be significant, assuming it is possible.

The best way to minimize the impact of such a disaster is to keep backups.

What is a backup?

A backup is a copy of the computer’s files, kept on a separate medium. There are two different types:

1 Data backups, which typically do not include any of the applications needed to access the data.

2 System ‘image’ backup, which includes all files on the computer’s system disk and can be used to recreate the entire system in case the computer is lost or damaged.

Data backups are typically relatively small – people are often surprised at how small they are.

System image backups, by contrast, are typically quite large and of limited value since they can typically only be reloaded on a computer identical to the one that created them. Therefore, if you have lost your computer, the backup is of very limited use. It’s normally only used to recover from a hard drive failure: anything else and the image won’t work.

So, keep a disk image backup of your system, in case it fails, but, better, keep system/application installation disks/licenses/keys so applications can be reinstalled on a new machine .

Data backups are more versatile and can usually be easily reloaded on the same or a new computer. In many cases this will work even if the new machine has a different operating system than the old one (although there are limitations…).

However, there is one important criteria for a backup to be useful: it must be kept separate from the original data. There’s little point in backing up files to a drive that’s kept on or near the original computer: lose one, lose both!

Also, the backup disk should be kept disconnected from the main system, except when the backup is in progress. Because? Viruses and ransomware will affect ALL drives connected to an infected computer, making your backup unusable too… This also applies to cloud storage: if the cloud drive is connected when the infection, it will also become infected. (and, from there, any other machine that accesses the cloud files…)

Making a backup

So: to back up the data, connect a stand-alone disk/pen drive or link to the cloud drive, run the backup program, then disconnect the backup/cloud drive and store remotely from the original machine (ideally in a separate building).

If you feel rich enough, keep TWO backups in two different locations and update them alternately. Hopefully this will mean that at least one of them will always be available to use…