Introduction
In modern times, computers are becoming more and more involved in all fields. This means that more and more data is being entered in, kept, processed. and displayed by computers. The advantage of having information at your fingertips is immensely popular and is considered a common necessity in normal day life weather you are a teenager or a businessman. With so much crucial data and information on the computer, it has become an important part of our lives and hence all efforts are made to make the computer more stable and reliable but it does often crash leaving us with so much extra work and back tracking.
For data loss, there is only one sure and concrete method-- backup. Backup means to save your important data on a secondary source so that if the primary source fails, you can recover your data from the secondary source. Although this method requires time and cost but it is vital to ensure a steady flow of data for your needs.
Step 1
There are various places to backup data and these vary according to the user, the type of data to be backed up and the availability of data. For example a student with university lectures will need his old notes before the examinations at the end of the semester where as a company with financial records will need the data daily. Keeping these factors in mind, there are many places to backup data but they all have their pros and cons.
Step 2
The most common place to backup data is on a CD/DVD ROM/RAM device. These are great for personal computers as the data is backed into a different source and kept safely away from the computer hence if the computer crashes or the data is lost or corrupt, it can be restored using the backup CD/DVD ROM/RAM. This method is the most commonly used in the world as the CD/DVD ROM/RAM is very reliable and it costs less.
Step 3
Another place for data backup is an external hard-drive. This is helpful for frequent backups of data as external hard-drives are fast and they have large storage spaces. If the data is small in size, it can also be backed up in a USB flash memory. But both have a common disadvantage as they have electronic circuits and they can be destroyed if not cared properly.
Step 4
For companies with networks of computers, all the important data is kept on the server, and it needs to be backed up to secure the data. So a backup server is setup in a way that the vital data is updated on it from the main server and should the main server crash, the backup server will provide the data while the main server is fixed. This ensures the continuity of data for the working of the company network and its staff.
Another place to backup your data is online. You can upload your data to online servers providing the service and then download whenever you need the data. This is best for important documentations and is also a very flexible way as the data can be accessed from anywhere via the Internet. You can also set permissions or setup a password to ensure protection for your information from unauthorized access.
All the above method can be used to backup to a secure location in order to provide security to important data.
