Today we are going to touch on the top five ways in which to avoid needing data recovery help (most often in terms of file retrieval). Although all of these steps are obvious, it is funny to note how many people do not follow them and are, consequently, in need of expert technical assistance at some point in their life. So, without further ado:
1) Back up your data.
This is the easiest and best way to avoid the need for data recovery. Furthermore, with all the options available today (USB drives, CD's, DVD's, external hard drives, online back up services) you have no excuse not to back up all of your files. Why backup? Making duplicates or even triplicates of your files allows one copy to die without any major consequences.
2) Create a data backup schedule.
Although making copies of your information once in a while is useful, it is much better to create a schedule with which to follow. If you know you will copy all of your computing stuff to an external hard drive every Friday, it becomes a habit. The good thing about habits is that they become ingrained within your brain so after a while you no longer need to remember them.
3) Image your machine
For people who are relatively experienced computer users, they may wish to think about making images (clones) of their computer once in a while. This way, should your computer completely fail, you can reinstall not only your own important documents, but also your whole operating system environment upon which your files reside. This may not be an option for everyone; however, it is highly recommended if you wish to recover your data with minimum fuss and hassle.
4) Email important files
With email services like Gmail providing huge amounts of space, utilizing them to store important information is a good (and cheap) option. All you have to do is create an account, create a backup folder and then regularly email your files to this folder. The only problem with email is that it is much slower than making use of an external hard drive.
5) Remember
This last point may seem a little difficult to understand, but in reality it is quite simple. Remember that your computer, although seemingly omnipotent, is not. It has faults just like any other thing in this world. One of those faults is that it can crash and lose your important data.
