You only realize how much data is on your computer hard drive when it is lost. Photo albums bank account information account user names and passwords and so much more is saved on computers these days. The only way to prevent such massive data loss is by regularly backing up your data.

Modern computers are very reliable. Hard drives today seem to work forever without a malfunction and computers can be kept on twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Although it all seems great disaster does happen. Computer files can be destroyed for many other reasons than hardware failure. Software failure can cause files to be deleted and of course viruses and other hostile software can deliberately delete files. And one of the most common and unavoidable reasons is simply human error hitting the delete key by mistake.

Disasters are unavoidable than the only way to recover from those disaster without data loss and damage is to backup your files. Most users are not aware of the need to backup their files actually although backup is more important than for example setting up an anti virus most users will install anti virus but will not backup their files.

There are a few ways in which you can backup your files and you should pick the one the best works for you. Your backup needs depend on a few things like the amount of data that you have and that needs to be backed up and on how often that data is updated. For example if you have just a few files that are updated every few months then backing them up every few months on a CD is a good solution for you. On the other hand if you have thousands of files that are updated every day then a special backup device or an online backup service is better.

Which data should be backed up? The answer is simple any data that if lost you will want to salvage. This usually includes all personal files and all data that is not pure application or application configuration. Your address book emails calendar for example should be backed up. Your accounts user names and passwords your documents excel sheets and so on should be backup up. Photo albums video files and other multimedia files should be backed up too.

There are some simple rules to remember when backing up. Always keep a few old backups. Do not backup over the old backup all the time. The reason is simple sometimes it takes time to realize you lost some files and if you keep backing up on the same media again and again by the time you realize you are missing a file the backup that had it will be gone. For example good practice is to make a daily backup over the same media but once a week make a weekly backup and just put it aside. Keep a few of those weekly backups before overwriting them.

Another important thing to remember is where you keep your backups. Do not store the backups right next to your computer. It is best if you can keep the backup at a different location. Find a family member or a friend where you can place the backup media or if you are using an online backup service your backup by definition will be store away and in a relatively safe place.