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Just as backup is important for computer systems at large organizations and businesses, home computers need backup as well. Although they may not hold important business data, support integrated real-time computing, failure of which would cause huge financial losses, but the personal computer holds data that is most of the time extremely personal and valuable at a personal level. In case of a system failure, theft or software corruption, extremely important data can be lost and recovery can cost a fortune.

Valuable data on PC’s include bank records and other financial information, memorable photographs, software purchased and downloaded off the Internet, music purchased and downloaded from the Internet, personal work projects, your e-contact book, organizers and schedules, internet browser bookmarks and any other important irreplaceable information. Why make backup? Statistics show that at least one in every hard disk drive gets corrupted every year and the cost of recovering data from such a disk can be as high as $7,000.

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(How To Keep Your Home Office Files And Data Safe and Secure , 2009) Annually, around 2 million laptops are stolen. Most of them end up in the wrong hands; people who misuse personal information. What can be done with this information can be fretful thought for owners. Even minor careless activities like children playing on the computer, liquid spills and power outages can cause a lot of damage to the system and can result in significant data loss. Recovering data has its threats as well.

This brings up privacy issues and the threat of data duplication during the recovery process. All these factors contribute towards the importance of PC data back up. Frequency of Backup This concept is relative. Some people are more active PC users than others. They may work from home and/or perform important daily activities on the computer. Some use it for daily communication or use the PC as an entertainment center. The more frequent the PC use, the more frequent the data backup should be.

All important files that are used most frequently, or are more frequently changed or altered, like journals, photo albums, browsing bookmarks, documents and cat-logs, should be backed up and updated as frequent as the change. Since my use of the PC consists of daily high frequency assignment and communication use, I decide to backup my important files daily at a specific time or after every time changes are made to a significant file. Automatic schedules are effective but they need special dedicated software aimed towards backup and data protection.

I currently do not have any such software; therefore I plan on backing up my data manually. This allows me total flexibility. Although I have programmed backup reminders on my computer to make sure I do no forget my daily backup update. The update will consist of the simple copy pasting of the concerned files and folders and overwriting so that the most updated version is backed up and saved. Medium The device I use for back up is a simple flash memory drive. It has several advantages; firstly it is safe and non-volatile.

It does not get corrupted easily and the silicon medium is quite durable. Flash drives can even survive being submerged in water and can be used after dried out for a certain period of time. Secondly, it is a cheap medium. With higher capacity models coming in every month, the previous ones get cheaper drastically; I currently have one with a capacity of 16 Gigabytes. One can also own several flash drives. They also allow quick and seamless data transfer. Lastly, they are portable and easy to carry around, easy to use and totally hassle free. Critique

The outlined plan is quite fool-proof and has no advantages except one threat; the portability and scale of the USB flash drive can also cause it to be stolen, misplaced or lost. This can cause the important data to be fallen in to the wrong hands or get destroyed. If the drive is protected and taken care of, then the back up plan can be very effective and convenient. References How To Keep Your Home Office Files And Data Safe and Secure . (2009). Retrieved July 19, 2009, from homeofficebuddy: http://www. homeofficebuddy. com/databackup/index. shtml

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