It’s Time to Back It Up: Celebrating World Backup Day

By: Lisa Eichelberger

Have you ever lost your personal data when your device was unexpectedly damaged or infected with a virus? You are not alone in dealing with these types of mishaps and loss of personal data. According to World Backup Day, 30% of people have never backed up their data. To avoid losing your most important information, backing up your data should become a regular practice.

Backing up your data is essentially creating a copy of all your electronic files and documents, memories (pictures and videos) and emails in a separate location. Backups can be kept on an external drive or in the cloud. Selecting a secure location and ensuring that files are backed up regularly is necessary to ensure your most important information is available in the event of an emergency.

Some of you may still be thinking that this is not that important. After all, you’ve made it this long without backing up your files. All it takes is one unanticipated event and your most important information can disappear. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Designate a backup device. Whether you prefer to use an external drive you can plug into your computer or to store your data in the cloud, decide how and where you want to back up your information. Select a device or location designated solely for data backups.

• Make a plan and stick to it. Schedule regular backups for all of your devices and stick to your plan. Consider doing weekly or daily backups to avoid potential losses.

• Set up automatic backups whenever possible. Some devices have an option to automatically backup data daily to the cloud. Consider opting for the automatic backups. This way, your data is safe even if you forget to do the backup.

• Backup your backup. In the event that you cannot access your data backups, having a secondary backup can provide a safety net to ensure no data is lost. Multiple options allow you to recover data in case something unexpected occurs to your backup device or location.

• Preserve historical information. Most backups are created for the purpose of data recovery. Consider establishing a system for storing and archiving your historical data that you no longer need to access on a regular basis. Devices and computers have limited storage space. Relocating historical data to a secondary location not only creates more storage capacity, but it can make it easier to locate older files, preserve historical information, and eliminate the potential loss of this data through an unexpected event.

Join the many who are pledging to backup their important information on World Backup Day, March 31, 2021. For more information visit http://www.worldbackupday.com/en/.