There are very few certainties in life but here is one of them: you will lose data at some time or other; maybe you already have. Data can be an important email, a photograph of your grandchild crossing the line at the school sports day, or your entire treasured music collection. Let’s face it; some things in life are simply irreplaceable.
Data is intangible; we can’t just put it in a drawer for safekeeping or hang it like keys on a hook where we can see it. We can’t see it, touch it or smell it!
What makes data loss so inevitable is the variety of ways it can occur, from mechanical failure of a critical computer component, to not saving a document just as dad drills into the electrics, or to just deleting the wrong file. Analysing risk is usually achieved by assessing the severity of hardship caused by an event and multiplying it by the likelihood of that event happening. So, given the above examples alone it’s surprising we entrust so much of our lives to computers.
What we don’t often hear are tales of how somebody didn’t lose data because that would be a non-event (imagine if Facebook not losing your private data made News at Ten). Usually we don’t even hear about when somebody does lose data either (think of all those data loss cover ups which only get reported years later). This can be because people or organisations are too embarrassed to admit it.
So what can we do?
We could do just nothing. Or we could accept the inevitable & make backups (copies, duplicates, spares) and store them on something physical in a safe location. Simples!
If you regularly make copies of your critical data then you can stop reading now. If that’s not you, however, either go & do it right away, or call us on 01270 617490. We’ll be happy to provide advice on a solution. All recent versions of Windows have backup software included as standard so maybe you just need help getting it working.
– Simon
