It happens to everyone at least once if you have been involved with computers at work or at home for any length of time. You accidentally hit a wrong button or do something else wrong and ZIP before you know it that folder of family pictures is gone, or all the banking data for your small business account is gone, or your entire hard disk is just wiped clean and your life passes before your eyes. And guess what – you don’t have a backup. So, there is a lesson to learn in this – always do a backup.
3-2-1-1 rule
While researching for this article, I learned a good backup method to use – it is known as the 3-2-1-1 rule for backups. This means that you maintain three copies of all important data, stored on two various types of media (one on disk, other on tape), storing one copy on-site and one copy off-site, with one of these copies physically removed from the network which creates what is known as an “air gap” that cannot be ransomed or hacked.
Important to always remember
You need to always do backups. At your business, you should do two backups and keep one onsite and the other somewhere off-site. This is a good way to avoid losing all your data. And on your home computer – always do backups.
Audit your backup
Never just set up the backup, then leave not checking the backup on the next day. It could have been a bad backup and you would never know until something goes wrong, so always check or audit the backup to make sure that it is a good and true backup.
Programs to use
There are also many programs that can help you with backing up your data and keep you from making stupid mistakes. But even these don’t work all the time. Especially if you are not paying attention or often just in a hurry.
No backups
But if you are not in the habit of doing backups – no rule is going to help. Your data is gone and that’s it. But, not so fast as there are always companies that can help you with this problem. There is probably a data recovery company somewhere near you – after all you are not the only one who erases everything accidentally. It happens to everyone and these companies can recover data from almost everything.
What can be recovered
These companies have standard services such as:
- Hard drive recovery
- RAID data recovery
- SSD data recovery
- Memory card recovery
- USB flash recovery
- External drive recovery
Don’t just run away
Usually, with these companies, there is no challenge that is too large or complex for the data not to be recovered. So, remember this before you decide to drop everything and run away from home or work – there are companies that know how to recover your data.