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Backup, backup, backups! If there's one thing I've learned in 20 years and some 12,000 data recoveries, it's that everybody doesn't back up their data sometimes. Computers may be dumb, but they know when you don't have your data backed up — because that's when they break. Don't let your computer fool you — back up new data daily. For removable media, it's important that you keep alternating backups, and a spare. This means to have one disk (or tape, or thumb drive) labeled "EVEN" (for even-numbered days, one labeled "ODD" and one spare. Eventually, something will go wrong with a backup. For example, if an error occurs on an "EVEN" day, and you put in your "ODD" backup, you may ruin both. Instead, put in the spare. If there is a problem, you've saved your extra backup (from the day before yesterday) and have not wasted all your hard work. If there is no problem, and it was only a temporary glitch, then put your spare back on the shelf, reformat the "EVEN", and carry on with your backup. What's the best thing to make a backup on? There are a lot of ways to back up your data. Most new computers come with DVD-R, or DVD-RW drives. Some slightly older ones come with CD-R or CD-RW. Many PCs still come with floppy disk drives (and you can get an external one for a Mac or for a PC). There are Zip drives, tape drives, USB "thumb" drives, and more. My current favorites are External FireWire or USB 2 drives, and DVD-R for full backups and USB thumb drives for smaller amounts of data. There are quite a few external drives on the market today and if you have a computer that's less than three years old, you probably have the ports for hooking these up. They usually come with backup software as well. As of this writing, the drives are mostly under $150. Once installed, it's a good idea to leave these drives off except when backing up. That way, a power spike or other environmental event that may destroy data on your hard disk will be unlikely to damage the external hard disk. For CD-RW drives, I recommend using CD-R media only, as it's too easy to overwrite a previous backup using a CD-RW disk. The same goes for DVD-R disks on DVD-RW drives. This is a good form of backup for large amounts of data (DVDs hold more than 4GB, and CDs hold more than 650 MB), and each disk is inexpensive. But it leaves you with a lot of plastic disks sitting around. That's why I typically use them only for large backups. Heat, bending, and scratching are the enemies of CD disks. Incidentally, while it's hard to do CD or DVD recovery, it is possible to recover CDs that are damaged. Zip drives are going out of style but still come in sizes from 100 MB to 750 MB and cost from $60 to $200, while additional disks cost around $10 each. These are sensitive to dust, shock, too much heat, and big magnets. Remember to alternate backups with Zip disks as a damaged Zip drive can damage a Zip disk. Zip disk recovery is possible, but tends to be less successful than recovering other media. Floppy diskettes don't hold very much (1.4 MB), but cost a few cents, and are easy to carry around. Many PCs have them, and some Macs do. Floppies are sensitive to heat, magnetic fields, dust, bending and other rough handling. Tape drives should only be used for very large amounts of data. They are relatively expensive and slow. They're great on large networks for after-hours backups, but they're easily damaged. Tape recovery is difficult and expensive. I am an unabashed fan of USB thumb drives! These are actually memory sticks with a USB plug on the end that act like portable hard disks. They are sturdy - I accidentally let one go through the wash in my shirt pocket. After it dried out, it still had my data on it (don't try this at home)! While we've been successful performing USB data recovery, in this case, it wasn't even necessary! They come in sizes from 64 MB to 4 GB. B y the time you read this, they may be storing even more! They can be shared and used on PCs and Macs without reformatting. You can buy one at a local computer or electronics store for about fifty bucks. Keep your data backed up, because eventually your hard disk is likely to crash. When that happens, you can contact us at http://www.DataRecoveryWorldwide.com or call us at (805) 349-7676 or toll free at (866) 345-3345 and we’ll recover your data for you. But you’ll save plenty of time and money if you have a backup. Steve Burgess was founder of the first commercial data recovery service in 1985 andis President of Data Recovery Worldwide. Mr. Burgess is also a freelance technology writer and can be contacted at http://www.DataRecoveryWorldwide.com
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