World Backup Day 2024: Is Your Data Safe?

World Backup Day serves as an important reminder that we must be proactive about safeguarding our data. The idea started on Reddit when a user suggested a yearly event to remind people to save their files and photos. As other users and even companies decided to be part of it, the idea became a reality. Since 2011, March 31st has been known as World Backup Day – a time to spread awareness around data backups.

This date was chosen because of a famous near-disaster in the history of Pixar’s Toy Story 2. In 1998, a command was accidentally entered that deleted 90% of the finished film data from Pixar’s servers. Fortunately, the lead technical director had recently backed up the entire movie onto data tapes. If not for this backup, Toy Story 2 would have been lost and a generation deprived of one of the most beloved animated films.

The Toy Story 2 near-catastrophe illustrates why regular backups are so critical. Whether by using professional backup services offered by companies like Central Computers or doing it yourself onto external drives, implementing a backup strategy can save you from disaster down the road. And if your backups ever fail or get damaged, data recovery experts at SalvageData have the tools to securely restore data. Even from the most severely corrupted files.

What is a backup?

A backup is a second (third, tenth, and so on) copy of a file or any amount of data, to keep them secure and accessible when needed. It works as a safety box in case the original files become corrupted, damaged, or lost. To be effective, backups have to be regularly updated

It’s important to plan the backup. Make sure you are choosing reliable storage media, maintaining multiple copies across devices, storing backups off-site, and updating backups on a set schedule. 

Businesses are required to take into consideration the type of data being copied and stored so that their backup is compliant with data protection regulations.

How often should you back up?

If you care about your data, it doesn’t matter if it’s business data or personal – you must create backups regularly. However, the frequency of backups will vary according to data usage and data type.

Businesses that don’t change or add new data daily, can make weekly backups. However, organizations that depend on data for daily operations, should have their backups scheduled daily.

Despite the risk and the yearly reminder, many users still do not back up their data. Considering how storage devices can get damaged easily (like a phone getting run over by a car), permanent data loss is a very real threat to the unprepared. 

According to a survey by Backblaze, 11% of users create backups daily, 12% create weekly backups, 22% create backups monthly, 24% create them yearly, and 18% have never backed up their data. This is an improvement from 2022 when 10% of users created daily backups, and 20% never created a data backup, indicating people are getting more concerned about data loss prevention.

Pro tip: You can perform the backup yourself or set automatic backups of your data to a cloud service, for example. Set reminders and schedule your backup daily or weekly to guarantee all data is the most updated.

Why should I back up my data?

Any backup data storage device or cloud system is at some risk of eventual failure. Devices can crash, hard drives can fail, data can get corrupted, natural disasters can happen, or cyber-attacks can strike. The reasons behind data loss are numerous, having users as the main threat actors, even when it’s an accident.

Human errors, such as mishandling storage devices or accidental deletion, are one of the main causes of data loss. A recent report revealed the cause of 64% of downtimes are human errors. 

Not to mention that cyberattacks have been on the rise, targeting more and more businesses. While ransomware recovery services exist, a backup can reduce a lot of the damage caused by ransomware’s file encryption and ransom demands.

With a backup, you can restore your data promptly, reducing downtime and ensuring business continuity. Overall, safeguarding valuable data and digital assets provides peace of mind well worth the effort. 

How do I back up my data?

Backing up your important data involves creating copies and storing them in secondary locations to safeguard against loss. 

Our experts recommend the “3-2-1” rule for backup best practices. This entails maintaining at least 3 total copies of your data, across 2 different media types, with 1 copy stored offsite. 

Ideally, automate backup jobs to run on a defined schedule, whether daily, weekly, or otherwise. Storage solutions should provide both local and remote redundancy, with offsite options to withstand incidents like fires or floods. 

Overall, backing up requires planning and diligence to work reliably. Manage backups across devices – from computers to iPhones – and periodically test the backed-up files to make sure they remain retrievable. 

What should I do if I lose my data that has no backup?

The first thing to do if your device suffers any visible damage, starts making noises, or is not detected any longer, is to STOP USING IT until you fix the device or recover the data. The more you use, the fewer chances you have to get your files back. 

If your device is functioning properly and not making irregular noises, a good first step is to download free data recovery software. However, a physically damaged data storage device could’ve been because of water, fire, or because it fell, and will need a professional data recovery service.

Important: Trying to recover data on your own can cause more loss or damage to the device itself. Try your recovery skills on data and hard drives that aren’t important to you to make sure you’re able to recover your data.