No hardware problem can be dealt by them, and complicated software flaws are also beyond the limits of standard DIY. Besides, there are certain kinds of data that have a tendency to get fragmented if not regularly maintained in a properly filed condition. Somehow, this data is often what we use most frequently.

To prevent such sad mishaps, we need to save certain data regularly. This does not mean that we update the file on the hard disk every day, but essentially we take backups regularly. A backup is useful only if it is outside the existing location. Instead of stacking up the data of C drive in a folder on D drive (as many users actually do, especially those who use laptops with the recovery disk partitioned in), we need to take these backups on a CD or DVD or USB drive. In case the data is very heavy, or we expect it to grow over time, the wisest backup investment is to buy an external hard disk and keep loading it with your regular backup files. Below are some examples of data that typically need regular backup.

We have long discarded the habit of writing names and addresses on little bits of paper or in pocket phone books. These paper backups are still handy, and when you need to jot down something very fast, they are still better than even the cell phone, but ideally we should take the data out of them and keep recording it in a digital format somewhere else too. Then why do you need to back up the address book backup?

Another folder that we all have on our programme drives and almost never back up is the default mailbox. This is where all our important mails are stored offline as well.

Photo and video files happen to be quite large. The same applies to songs that you may have dumped from a CD or clips that you have downloaded from the internet.

Personal memoranda contain all those daily details that you write immediately, and don't back up. So when you are looking for a particular phone number or a quick recap of how you had tracked your work, it is lost ? unless you had kept the daily backup ? and not on the C drive.

A lot of people have the habit of keeping personal banking and email details stored offline. This is both unsafe and foolish. Such details are precious and dangerous and must be backed up regularly.