It’s 11:30pm, do you know where your files are?

There are many reasons why our data might disappear on us, including natural disasters, unexpected malfunctions, and Murphy’s Law. Would you be able to access backups of your files if they were irretrievable this weekend? Whether these files are for personal or professional use, most of them carry more value to you than could be measured in megabytes. To avoid the loss of important data, you’ll need to take some important measures.

Don’t store important data in the hard drive where your OS and program installations reside. The drive where your OS and programs run is probably the drive that will encounter problems and need to be reformatted or replaced. Most viruses, worms, and malware target this drive. To lessen the inconvenience of reformatting, use a secondary hard drive as your data storage drive.

Backup online files. If you’re a web app power user, odds are you have important data resting online. If the web apps you use allow you to download copies of your files, take advantage of this feature. When you copy these files to an offline location, you will be able to access them should you have an unstable or nonexistent internet connection. Also, reliability won’t be an issue. During the 9/11 attacks in New York, I lost a lot of data stored primarily online because the servers of the company I was working with were located in that area. I should’ve known better and kept copies of my online files. Back them up on a weekly basis as a safeguard should something happen to the equipment of the company carrying your data.

Routinely back up to an external location. This might include a USB thumbdrive, a CD, an external hard drive, or an online storage service such as Xdrive or Carbonite. Online storage services are unlike your average web app servers. They are more durable and have a tight security guarantee.

If you’re downloading to an external hard drive or USB device, security might be an issue. To keep your data secure, you can store the device in a safe or keep it protected through encryption or passwords.

Have a list of folders that need to be backed up. This list will come in handy in case of emergency reformatting and you need to backup ASAP. Apart from listing important folders, also indicate where the backup files are located. Doing this allows you to keep an inventory of where your data is stored, should you need to locate these files in the future.

Choose your backup medium well. Select a device that has a long lifespan and is readable on most computers. For offline media, select something with lasting power. These could be good quality CDs/DVDs for non-sensitive data, or durable external hard drives/flashdisks. The National Institute for Standards and Technology conducted a study on the lifespans of optical media, and they found that dye type is an important factor in optical media longevity. For example, CDs with a pthalo-cyanine dye combined with a gold-silver alloy tend to be more stable, but it’s hard for consumers to find out the composition of an optical disc’s dye layer - a bit of extra research is needed in this area.

For online backups, select a storage company with a good reputation. Find one that works with businesses, and has been providing their services for a long time. Research consumer reviews of the service as well (testimonials on their product site should be taken with a grain of salt). Also, be sure that there is a guarantee and that their company has redundant servers.

Start now. Don’t wait for a computer malfunction to start backing up your files. It should be a routine for individuals and businesses that rely heavily on computers. By starting a backup routine now, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of effort - and headaches - in the long run.