Minimizing the risk of losing your data on your computer, your mobile and tablet

Good morning everyone!

I was going to write a summary of this post on Facebook but finally, I decided to write a full post with minute details and also, to keep the blog alive. I must say that I have been pretty lazy since some time now: Only 2 articles in the past month!

The hard disk failure

As I announced on Facebook yesterday, my external hard disk failed within minutes after I heard some weird “ting-ting” sounds coming from it. At the moment I heard those noises, I already knew that the hard disk, purchased in November 2011, was soon going to fail. And while I was surfing eBay to look for another disk to order, it just stopped working. Reviving it has been unsuccessful till now.

Fortunately for me, I did not lose everything although the external hard disk was used as my main storage. Even my computer’s hard drive does not hold as much data as the external one! Today, I’m happy that I still have a copy of most of my pictures, important documents and blog backups somewhere on DVDs or on the cloud (internet). However, I did lose the pictures I shot with my DSLR during the past months of 2014 as well as some mobile backups.

Tips and good practices

Instead of crying over the spilt milk in the event your computer’s hard drive or external backup hard disk fails, it is always a good idea to follow the tips and good practices listed below and minimize the data lost under such circumstances.

The main pieces of advice which most college students learn in their computer classes are :

• Always ensure that you have updated copies of your data backed up.
• Never keep copies of your data in only one location.

The affordability of physical disk storage and the various free cloud services available on the internet today makes data storage and safety so easy and seamless :

1. Keep your files in the cloud!

Create an account on one of the cloud storage facilities like Google Drive or DropBox. You should get enough free space to store your most important files on the internet. However, opening an account is not sufficient. You must ensure that you upload those important files as regularly as possible.

The most beautiful thing about this cloud storage is that your will be able to access your data from virtually anywhere : your mobile, tablet, office or college computer!

2. Back up your mobile and tablet too

With the increasing use of mobiles and tablets, the data stored in these devices have gained crucial importance and high value in our lives. You probably have a lot of SMS, call logs, pictures shot with the device’s camera which you don’t want to lose. This is why you should also think about backing up these data regularly either manually or automatically with free apps and built-in functionalities.

1. Set up your device’s automatic back up feature (if available)
   
2. Store your contacts details on the cloud (Google for instance) instead on your SIM.
   
3. Set up automatic back up of your pictures when you are connected to a WiFi network
   
4. Automatically back up your SMS and calls log to the cloud
   

   

5. And for those who need it : Set your phone to record your calls automatically and again, send the audio recordings to the cloud 🙂

On top of creating copies of your data, the above tips will make your SMS, phone contacts, call logs and pictures available from anywhere, even if your mobile phone is damaged, or lost!

3. Go for a physical back up device

Buy a physical external hard disk!

Nothing beats a physical drive especially when you need instantaneous access to your data when there isn’t any internet connectivity to access the cloud or in the event you lost your main storage during a fire, device failure etc.

4. Burn your data to DVDs occasionally

Thankfully as mentioned earlier, I have lost only a limited amount of data, especially those bulky pictures and videos shot during the past months. This data lost has been minimized mainly since I have burned most of the pictures and important files to DVDs a few months back. I have been following this practice since years now and this has proved to be a good one 🙂

Do not wait for a data failure!

If you feel that you do have some important data which you can’t bear losing, I will strongly advise you to act immediately and ensure your data is safe and sound.

I will end with this kreol quote :

“Malheur pena l’odeur!”