Personal Computer Data Storage and Backup
What is Data?
Data is generally known as one’s user files. These include:
- your document files
- emails
- address books
- calendar
- pictures
- videos
- music
- accounting data used by your accounting program
- or any other data related file generated for your reference by a parent application.
A data file differs from a program file or operating system file and it is therefore necessary for each to be placed in separate locations to avoid deletion or corruption.
I would also consider the following as essential data:
- Favorites (Internet Explorer) or Bookmarks (Firefox)
- Windows Address book
- Data stored on the desktop
Where is this data?
Most of your data is grouped together in one folder called by your user profile name. However this folder can be pretty big because it also contains all your temporary files, and some very large files generated by the operating system. Some of it is also set as hidden by the windows operating system. There may be other data stored elsewhere which you might want to back up (e.g. some accounting programs keep your accounts data in the same place as the program files).
The main problem is that there is only one copy of this data in only one place.
This means that it is vulnerable to:
- Fire or theft
- Data corruption or virus attack
- Deleting and losing data files by mistake
- Hardware failure – all hard drives eventually crash and lose your data. This can happen even when the hard drive is new and the chances increase dramatically the older the drive gets.
Measures we can take for data portability and security
The moment we have a copy of our data in a different place then…
- We have a duplicate of our data secured in case of loss or corruption.
- It can be accessible to us while on the move, depending on where it is stored.
Where this data is stored and how the backup works all depends on what best suits your business or lifestyle.
Storage
The type or place of storage will depend on the how much data you want to backup, and how accessible you want the data to be.
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CD, DVD and BlueRay Storage
I recommend this storage medium only for data distribution. E.G. files, photos, music or videos you want to pass on to a colleague or friend. Or to keep a backup of old data that will not need updating. E.G. Old accounts data.
-
USB Storage
This is the quickest and often most practical way of storing your data.
- a USB flash memory key stores up to 32GB (ultra portable)
- a 1.8” drive stores up to 120GB (very portable)
- a 2.5” drive stores up to 250GB (portable)
- a 3.5” drive stores up to and more than 1TB (not very portable)
(The storage capacities are rising but the concepts should remain constant.)
The cost of storage per Gigabyte is inversely proportional to the size of the storage media – the smaller the media the higher the cost.
- Network Attached Storage (NAS)
This is a hard disk attached to a network router or hub using either an ethernet cable or a wireless connection. This device can be seen either as a network place or mapped as another hard disk on your computer - given a drive letter. This is useful for data backup to an external drive and also to share documents, pictures and music with other users on the same network or wifi connection.
Recommended Devices -
Safecom SWSAPUR-5400
- Small compact and portable
- 2.5" internal drive bay for any laptop size hard disk drive.
- 2X USB ports - connect a printer to one USB and then use it as a print server so that a printer can be shared to anyone; connect a USB drive to the other to add to storage
- One touch backup button to copy an attached USB drive to the internal disk.
- Built-in wireless - use as an access point without separate wireless router.
Safecom SWSARU3-5400
Same as above but uses the larger 3.5" drive
Best Connectivity NAS-100
- 3.5" External HDD Enclosure used as external USB drive or NAS drive (Network Attached Storage)
- One-Touch-Backup facility
- Internet Storage
The internet is growing in popularity as a storage medium. There are storage services offered from as little as free, but starts costing for higher capacities. Website owners can use up some of their allocated web space as a web disk for no extra cost.
Website storage means that data is accessible from any internet connected computer.
Recommended Site -:
A Drive for 50GB free online storage, login from anywhere to access your files. Also quickly edit your online Word and Excel files.
Backup or Synchronisation Options
The issue with backup or synchronisation is to try to keep your copy of your data as recent as possible. If you are on the move you also want the data to be readily available.
There are software applications that will backup your data on a timed basis to another drive or onto the internet.
The difference between backup and synchronisation
Backup is a one way flow of data from a source drive to a target destination drive. It can either be a direct copy, or compressed to save space.
Synchronisation, on the other hand, compares the target with the source before performing a file copy and will work on a set of predefined rules to add, replace or delete a source or target file.
The fastest backup methods would be to perform continual incremental backups or to opt for a synchronisation solution.
Security
Depending on either the hardware device or the application being used the following methods of protecting your data are used:
- biometric authentication
- access password
- auto encryption
You are advised to use a software program to help you manage your data backup or synchronization. A list of recommended packages can be found at the bottom of our backup product page..
To purchase or view the products we stock, supply or install please click here. For help or advice please contact us.
