Digital data has many benefits. You can make hundreds of copies of it through a simple command and send them instantly all over the world over network wires.

Dozens of text files can easily be stored in a tiny USB drive and archived safely for a decade or more. However, for all its convenience, digital data has a fatal flaw. It is not as secure as a paper file and can get lost due to many causes.

Hardware Causes: These relate to damage to the physical components and data recording surface of a storage device. For example, an optical disk may bend out of shape due to excessive heat. Its surface may get scratched or be smudged by a thick liquid. A hard disk may have a head crash or its spindle motor may fail. A lightning strike may fry its inner circuitry.

Software Causes: These relate to damage to the software or data itself, including cases such as accidental deletion of a file by the user, reformatting of the storage media, virus attack and corruption of the data structure. The storage devices with a magnetic surface may lose their data by being exposed to a strong magnetic field.

Disasters: Apart from hardware and software causes, there are various man-made and natural disasters that may hit a location and inflict massive damage to data storage devices. Man-made disasters include wilful sabotage, arson and terrorist strike. Natural disasters may occur in many forms such as accidental fire, volcano eruption, floods, storms, building collapse, earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis and so on. Usually, these disasters destroy an entire building including all digital equipment located inside it. They can lead to severe cases of data loss.

Dozens of companies every year go bankrupt in the world because they couldn’t cope with an abrupt loss of their data. Others which survive data loss do so after spending a small fortune in getting the files recovered professionally. This process may take weeks and even months, during which the company is unable to conduct its day-to-day operations and the employees sit idle.

In cases of data loss, prevention is much better than cure. The cheapest and easiest way to fortify yo
urself against data loss is to take regular backup of your data. There are a variety of storage devices available in the market for the purpose. Some of these are given below:

Optical Disks: These are of two types: compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs). They are currently the most popular data backup devices for individual desktop and laptop users. There are many reasons for this. These disks are today extremely cheap but can store a huge amount of data. A CD has a capacity of over 750 MB of data while for a DVD, the figure is a staggering 4.6 GB. This is more than enough capacity for data storage needs of most computer users.

Tape Drives: These are still very widely used by small to mid-size companies for archival purposes. The tape drives use the tried and trusted magnetic-surface technology for storing digital data. They have very high capacities that may go up to 500 GB or even more. The data is stored in small plastic cartridges that enclose a thin and narrow ream of magnetic tape. Whenever you lose some data on the tape, you can salvage the rest of the files by simply cutting out the offending portion and reattaching the ends.

Portable Hard Disks: These work exactly as ordinary computer hard disks, but are small in size and made much more impact-resistant by the manufacturer. They are meant to be carried around by the user and come in capacities ranging from 80 GB to 500 GB. Most portable disks come with a software that automatically takes backups from a computer hard disk at the touch of a button. They are much more expensive than other removable storage devices available in the market but offer huge capacities and random access.

Online Backup: These days the trend of arranging for an online data backup is getting very popular. There are many companies providing this service for a fee. In this, the client’s data is automatically sent through the Internet or other network every day to reside on the remote servers of the service provider. In case of any mishap, the clients can download their data from the servers by using a password and restart their operations without any loss of time.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see
http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk