Many people have forgotten that today most pictures, documents and videos are stored on digital media. These media have a limited lifespan all depending on the media.

When does it happen?

Well, you never know. I've been in the IT area for almost 20 years and I've seen hard drives crash after 10 years and within a week of delivery. You can never be 100% certain about anything when we talk about data safety.

What media is safe?

NONE!

CD and DVD's will be corrupted within 2-6 years and even faster in humid conditions. The manufacturers promise longer life spans, but that's only if stored under the perfect conditions, which, in a regular home, is impossible.

Toughest media are still the CF/SD/MICRO/DUO etc. cardsused for cameras and recorders.

What should I backup?

Most people have many different digital media today. Basically all media that can hold documents, pictures and video should be backed up. Here are some examples.

1. Digital Camera
2. Digital Video Camera (CF/SD/MICRO/DUO/Hard drive etc).
3. Digital Video Recorders
4. Mobile Phones
5. PDA's
6. Memory keys

Most prone to failure are mechanical items such as hard drives.

How should I backup my data?

You should always have three copies of your data, better safe than sorry.

A backup procedure for a camera could look like this.

1. Copy the pictures to your computer.
2. Copy them to an external hard drive.
3. Save the CF/SD/DUO/MICRO card etc.when full.

How often should I backup my data?

As soon as you have important updates to your data you should backup the new or changed files. Setting up an automatic update may be a good idea, but you could have a crash the day after you ran the backup and after the backup you took a few hundred new pictures.

How can I backup my data?

Backup can be done in a variety of ways and there is no "perfect" bacup yet. Here are a few ideas.

1. Use Windows Backup
2. Download Microsoft Windows SyncToy
3. Buy a backup software (be aware of different technologies such as Real Time Sync)
4. Drag and Drop files from one drive to another
5. OnLine Backup

Windows Backup

Windows backup can be found in the System Tools Folder (Start => Programs => Accessories =>System Tools =>Backup

You can choose from different backup methods and files are stored in one huge file. Please be aware that you have to test the backup once in a while as such a file can be damaged as well.

Microsoft Windows Sync Toy

This tool can be downloaded from the microsoft website if you have a legal copy of Windows. The toy can syncronize two locations, be it files renamed, moved, deleted or updated. The toy has a limitation in the number of files it can handle. This limitation varies depending on how much RAM (Memory) you have in the computer.

Backup Software

There are virtually hundreds of softwares that can perform backups for you. You should be aware of the what/why/how to use the software. Here you can find everything from regular backup to realtime syncronization.

Drag and Drop

The most common way for experts to backup their data. This requieres good knowledge of file locations and what to overwrite. Not recommended for regular users.

OnLine Backup

A new industry growing really fast. The disadvantage is that you have to be online and the transfer, at times, can be extremely slow.

What if things fail?

Most of the time data can be recovered, at a cost of course. The cost varies depending on the type of failure. The cheapest recovery is mechanical failure that can cost from a few hundred USD and up. Media failure is the most expensive recorery and there is no price limit on this kind of recovery.

It's of the utmost importance that once the media fails, you do not try to access/use the device again. This is because things can get even worse especially if we talk about media failure.

Examples

Since 2005 we have had 156 cases of data recovery for expatriates here in Shanghai and 7 of these were "total loss" situations. Not because it wasn't possible, but due to the cost. In 3 cases we only had partial recovery of data due to media failure where the worst case was a client trying to access the hard drive over and over again and then also having a computer mall give it a go. The media basically looked like a knife had been held on the disk while spinning.

The most common failure are hard drives in computers and external USB hard drives. We have very few cases where data has been accidentally deleted or overwritten when reinstalling windows.

Chance of recovery

Deleted files by accident => Very good

Formatted the drive => Very good (client will have to go through a lot of files once recovered)

Reinstalling Windows => Pretty good (some files may be damaged)

Media failure => Bad - Very good (depending on how/when/time)

Mechanical failure => Good - Very Good (if fixed all files are recovered!)