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Let's face it. Backups of valuable data are something almost everyone knows about and very few people actually do, at least adequately. The subject of backups can be as simple as making copies of what you are currently working on, to massive backup and redundancy plans for an entire corporation. If you are a large company, it's probably a safe bet that you have an IT department handling this, so this article is more for the individual or small business concerned about the safety and security of their critical data.

First, start with the easy, basic stuff. Almost any word processor or spreadsheet software has an auto-save function. Use it. It's silly to work on a massive spreadsheet for hours only to have a power outage and you lose all the work. And like any other backup procedure, don't just turn it on and forget about it. Take a few minutes to understand how it works and how you can recover a document in the event of a power outage.

Next, you need to back up your critical files some place outside of your computer. Computers crash. Hard drives die. Years' worth of information can be lost when this happens. You may be aware that there are companies that can recover data from crashed systems, but what you may not know is that they charge huge sums of money to do it. Don't be held hostage for your data. Spend a little bit of money and time now and rest easy.

There are four easy and basic methods of backing up data that this article will discuss. Redundant systems and raid drive arrays are outside the scope of this piece. If you have that technology, you don't need this article. Three of the methods require some action on your part to make them and keep the backups current. The fourth is a bit more automated, but can get more expensive. There are systems you can buy that will fully automate backups for you, so you set it and forget. The problem with these systems is you set it and forget it. If something happens and the system isn't working, you may not know it until it's too late.

The first method and the one that's been around the longest is simply copying your files to a disk and storing it in a safe place. This used to mean a floppy disk, but now refers to CDs or DVDs. Simply put the disk in your drive, copy the files and store it away. The pros to this type of backup are you will have multiple copies of everything. Each time you do a backup, you have a new copy, so going back in time to a certain version of your data is easy. It's also easy to keep a copy offsite

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