Traditionally, backup in commercial offices has been on backup media such as magnetic disks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc. When the office administrator decided to backup the data, he had to close all open applications and take the backup of all files in the office server. If there were branches of a company spread over a large area, then in each branch there would be a person who would religiously take the backups.

Imagine you are working on a presentation late at night and poof… suddenly the hard disk of your computer crashes. This results in the loss of a hard disk which may be replaced or repaired by the manufacturer depending upon when you bought it. However, what cannot be replaced are the documents, address book, maybe financial information and the presentation that you need to present to your boss in the morning. It may take you weeks to retrieve all this information.

One of the ways to backup your data is to copy your entire disk to another disk. Naturally this is called disk to disk backup. Compared to backups made to tape or other media, disk based backups are faster, more easily restored and disks have become so cheap that every one can use them.
 
Depending on the storage system, backup times are noticeably and even dramatically shorter than those required for tape backups. In many companies, this technology renders the backup window a lot smaller. The outcomes being that backups are more up-to-date, since they can be run more frequently, while application and backup servers become available more quickly for other tasks and are under less strain.

Does your OS provide any backup service? Nearly all of the currently available operating systems provide an easy method to backup your data. Sometimes, the features available may not be as extensive as those available in commercial backup software but backups can be taken without paying extra money the commercial programs.

There is no doubt that you need to protect your data from loss as it contains your important documents and files which were prepared with months and sometimes years of efforts. Data protection is of two types:

• Data backup and restore: In this option, we need to back up the data as per our schedule. Whenever needed, we can restore the data from the backup. The data which was created or modified after the backup was taken is lost when we restore the backup.
• Data recovery. In this option, there are data recovery utilities which can help you recover your data even if you have not previously backed up your data.

1. http://www.backup-software-reviews.com/: This site has the reviews for the various Windows backup software. With Editor’s choice awards for the best backup software, users can decide which software to use.
2. http://www.backupcritic.com/: The main focus of this site is to provide tutorials as to how a user can perform various backup related tasks and the new trends that are emerging.

Does your OS provide any backup service? Nearly all of the currently available operating systems provide an easy method to backup your data. Sometimes, the features available may not be as extensive as those available in commercial backup software but backups can be taken without paying extra money the commercial programs.

The cheapest way to backup your data is to use external devices like CD/DVD or USB drives.
Let us consider the features of the external media currently available:

1. CD-ROM Disks: One of the cheapest backup media available, the CD can store about 700 MB of data. One can easily store data on a CD with the help of CD-writers which are common in most computers available today.
2. DVD-ROM Disks: These are a bit costlier than CDs but considering that one DVD disk can store 4.2 GB of data; the cost per GB is less as compared to CD.
3. USB Drive: Falling memory prices have made these backup media very cost effective. The additional advantage of these drives is that they can be reused many times unlike the CD/DVD. The only drawback is that usually a USB drive is required on the computer which may not be present in all computers.

Once you have decided to backup your data regularly, you need to decide on an effective backup strategy. The strategy will be different for different kinds of people. However, the features of an effective strategy remain the same. What are these features?

1. It allows you to restore any data you may need.
2. It is easy to follow.
3. It’s cost effective.