How to Minimize Data Loss

Data loss each years not only costs business and individuals billions of dollars, but also the loss of irreplaceable files such as family photos, how much of this can be prevented?

How much will it cost you if the worst happens? Your personal accounts – irreplaceable family pictures – business or other personal files – emails

Did you know data recovery can easily run into thousands of dollars, as opposed to anything from $50 for something to minimize data loss

Why does data loss occur?



It generally occurs for a number of reasons

Hardware failure – Hard drive failing (any other parts of the computer failing do not generally affect the data on the hard drive)
Software Problems – Computers operating system or application fails when saving a file.
User error – Overwriting the wrong file or not saving changes correctly or not at all when prompted.
Malware – Viruses and the like play a large part in deleting or rendering files useless.
Malicious Individuals – Not just hackers, but disgruntled employees have been known to delete files.
Acts of god – The building floods, catches fire or coffee gets spilt on your laptop

To begin with the best way to minimize data loss is have extra copies of files, however the extra copies should not be stored on the same hard drive or even in the same vicinity as the originals.

There are many different ways of avoiding data loss
A network hard drive offers a cheap but effective way to backup files – the network hard drive can be anywhere that it can receive a network connection, there are even some wireless network hard drives on the market which means that they can be placed anywhere as long as it is in range of your wireless router.

Pen drive or local external hard drive – a simple way to create file backups, just remember to remove the backup hardware when you are not backing up.

Internet – Many companies now offer internet backup services, you simply subscribe install their software, specify the directory you wish to backup and then it uploads at set times, if you have a slow internet connection and a lots of files this can be somewhat long winded though.

Old computer – if you have an old computer lying around why not use it as a file storage server?

CD/DVD backups – this is a great way to create multiple backups, but if you have a lot of files it can take a while, this is a good secondary backup method, if we use an external hard drive or network hard drive as a daily or hourly backup and then use the CD/DVD as a weekly or bi-weekly method.

It is one thing to have the hardware in place, but copying files manually can be a bind if you have a lot to copy, using dedicated backup software can be a godsend, not only does it automate the backups, but it also only backs up changes to files which means once you have done the initial backup, any future backup will take a fraction of the time.

Reducing the risk of data loss
Much of the time we can minimize data loss by taking a couple of preventative measures, much like a car you would not expect it to run well if it was just used for years with no maintenance, the same goes for your computer.

Antivirus and Antispyware
Your must have good and current antivirus and antispyware on your computer.

Windows updates
Microsoft do not just release updates to inconvenience us, many of them help with system integrity and  security protection.

Checkdisk and Defragmenting
Running both of these will not only help to maintain a reliable computer, but also keeping it running faster.

Hard drive space
having low hard drive space, below 15% will mean a slower system which may not be able to be defragmented and kept running efficiently.

Of course not all data loss can be avoided, but even if the worst occurs having a decent and reliable backup should only take short while to restore any data.

In terms of the lengths you want to go to ensuring the safety and integrity of you data depends on how you value it, for example I once consulted for a local authority that had backup servers in place, but they were in the same area as the main servers they were backing up from, this was risky due to the amount of data stored in the same location and the area being below sea level was at risk from flooding.

On another note one of our sites readers backs up all of his files onto a network hard drive that is stored at his brothers house, and his brother does the same, this means that he is well protected.

having backup copies of files will minimize data loss but creating extra copies can be viewed as a security risk in itself – read more on securing your data here ..

For more on hardware for data loss backups read here..

What other files do you need to backup in case the worst happens..

computer adviser minimize data loss article