The first and most reliable way to avoid accidental deletion or other forms of data loss is to make regular backups of your important files

User error isn’t the only way you can loose important data, photos, schoolwork or projects. You can experience a sudden power outage or power surge or even a dead hard drive. In case of hard drive failure, don’t keep your backups on the same drive you are backing up. Use another drive or burn them to a CD.

There are also free and paid online storage sites. A few offer up to 5GB of free space and include sharing. With any free storage site read the fine print. Some sites allow larger amounts of space but they limit uploads per month (1GB or less). In other words you can’t get large files uploaded all at once

• The more important the data that is stored on the computer, the greater the need is for backing up that data.
• A backup is only as useful as its associated restoration strategy.
• Storing the copy near the original is unwise, since many disasters such as fire, flood and electrical surges are likely to cause damage to the backup at the same time.
• Automated backup and scheduling should be considered, as manual backups can be affected by human error.
• Backups will fail for a wide variety of reasons. A verification or monitoring strategy is an important part of a successful backup plan.
• It is good to store backed up archives in open formats. This helps with recovery process in the future when the software used to make the backup is obsolete. It also allows different software to be used.