Who moved my files: what to do if you backup but still lose your files?

BY ELAINE HUANG

| APR 1, 2013 | ASIA

You backed everything up in a hard drive, and kept it in a safe with a top-notch passcode. But one day before your presentation, your backup is dead. Just a case of Murphy’s law coming to pass?

In conjunction with World Backup Day yesterday, Kroll Ontrack, a provider of data recovery and e-discovery, recently published a survey of its Ontrack Data Recovery customers. Well, they found out that 60 percent of participants had a backup solution in place at the time of data loss, but the said backup was not current or operating regularly.

Kroll also explained that regardless of solution, there are several incredibly common scenarios that can lead to data losses even with backups. For example, when the external drive is only connected on an occasional basis instead of automated, or there is insufficient free data destination space in the backup, or even when the backup profile does not match all of the devices requiring backup, data could get lost.

The survey results also showed that external hard drive backups are still the most used method of backing up both corporate and personal data. It revealed that 60 percent of these respondents used an external drive solution, 15 percent relied on the cloud and another 15 percent backed up to tape.

Abhik Mitra, data recovery product manager at Kroll Ontrack said that results are not always predictable. “[A]s our recent global survey results demonstrate, even a reputable cloud or external media solution does not always provide predictable results. An effective backup solution hinges on the user or IT administrator attentively validating that the solution is functioning as expected and verifying that the backup is complete.”

Among its 600 recent Ontrack Data Recovery customers surveyed, 27 percent are from North America, 15 percent from Asia Pacific and the rest stands at 58 percent from Europe. One third of these respondents indicated a loss of personal data while the rest reported a loss of business data.

Even after experiencing data loss, only 87 percent of respondents said that they are extremely likely or somewhat likely to find a backup solution. That was rather surprising. Well, the 13 percent who said that they are not planning to seek out a backup solution attributed it to a lack of time and high costs associated with research and administration.

“While World Backup Day reminds us that employing, monitoring and validating an effective solution is the key component in the fight against data loss, our survey demonstrates that data loss still occurs,” said Greg Olson, senior vice president of data and storage technologies at Kroll Ontrack.

What are some tips for backup success then? Well, first things first – always take the extra trouble and time to invest in a good backup solution and set a backup schedule. Ensure these backups are running regularly as with the determined schedule. Do also check backup reports for any indication of failure. Lastly, test backups periodically to check that data has been accurately captured and that files are all intact.

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