Backup

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In computing technology, backup refers to the process of making a copy of or a duplicate of computer data periodically and archiving it for future use. Instances of future use can be in the event of data loss, corrupt data, deleted data or disaster recovery. Achieving is usually done in data storage devices.

- Refers to the copying and archiving or computer data. Backing up is most useful to restore original data in case it is lost, or if it becomes corrupt.

- Ideally, backups should be done to three locations: onsite, online, and (a secured) off site location. The online and off0site backups are especially important in case the on-site backup is lost (fire, flood, etc.) or stolen.

- Backups can be made to physical media - CDs/DVDs/Hard Drives/Tapes, or online to the “cloud.”

- Several services and softwares exist to help users backup their data.

-Backups can be considered two kinds, Temporal or Sequential and Current or Duplicate

-After an initial backup of the data, temporal backup keep a record of any changes that are made in the data. In case of data corruption one can go back in time and obtain the uncorrupted file from the older backup.

-Current backup always keep the copy of the current data. This helps that if the data is lost in one location, one can start using the data from the other location. This minimizes work interruptions as a current copy of data is always available to the end user. However if a file gets corrupted or deleted than it can not be recovered.

-For these reasons it may be best to have sequential or temporal backups combined with current or duplicate data backups.