A lot of times I have come across new computer users who assume that data saved on their computer is extremely safe. So, they save all the important files on the computer assuming that the data would live there forever and they could use it whenever needed. Unfortunately, the safety of the data is not guaranteed. Because, there are a lot of factors that could harm your data. Let me give you a few examples.
1. Hardware Failure: If you have stored your data on the computer hard drive, there is always a possibility of hard drive failure. Sometimes, even a new hard drive could fail causing data loss. Although, your computer manufacturer might replace the hard drive free of cost, you might not be able to do anything about getting back your precious data.
2. Failure of Operating System: Your computer could pick up a virus anytime crashing the operating system. Else, even addition of an incompatible hardware could also disturb your operating system. Although, a repair or a clean installation of the operating system could be done to get the computer back and running, your data might still be lost.
3. Accidental Deletion: There are times when we might accidentally delete important data. Sometimes, we might be lucky to find the deleted data in the recycle bin. But, when we use the 'Shift-Delete' key combination, the data would be permanently deleted from the computer.
4. Natural Calamities: Natural factors such as lightning, hurricane, fire, earthquake and floods could damage the computer and in turn cause data loss.
There are also other common factors such as power failure and lose of data storage device that can result in a data loss.
So, it is always advisable to store data in more than one device. Even if the data on a device is deleted, there would be an alternative device containing the information. Also, if the data is extremely important, it is better to save the data on multiple storage devices and keep them in different locations. This can help avoid data loss due to natural calamities.
Having realised the threat of data loss and the importance of data backup, its time for us to learn simple ways to back up data. We can see about it in my next blog. Bye till then.
