Backups

ALWAYS BACKUP  YOUR IMPORTANT FILES 

PREFERABLY HAVE MORE THAN ONE BACKUP

PREFERABLY BACKUP TO MORE THAN ONE LOCATION

The only way to guarantee you don't lose data is to have backups.

The initial expense  of setting up a backup solution will more than pay for itself both in financial terms and in peace of mind. 

I can help you set up backup solutions for operating systems and personal files.

PLEASE backup your files as a matter of routine.

You can backup to a USB flash drive, an external hard drive, another internal hard drive, cloud drives like Onedrive, Amazon, Dropbox etc.

You can use special software, either free or paid versions or just simply copy and paste. 

Important files might include photos, videos, music, office documents or whatever files you consider important. 

It is possible to backup your entire operating system so if your system fails you can restore it in as little as 30 minutes. 

If you're lucky enough never to have lost important files then make sure you start backing up before you have a data failure.

All hard drives eventually fail and any data may be lost or will be very expensive to recover - potentially hundreds of pounds. 

It is good practice to divide your hard drive into separate sections (partitions) and use one for your operating system e.g. Windows or MacOS and another for your personal files e.g. office documents, photos, music etc. This makes it much easier to backup both your operating system and your files. It will also make system and data recovery much easier in the event of failure. 

Some forms of data loss are permanent no matter how much money you spend on recovery. 

The cost of forensic data recovery can run into hundreds if not thousands of pounds for large amounts of data.