Backup

The most valuable part of your computer is the data it contains.

Ask most people what they'd take with them if their house was on fire and they'll say "my photo albums" or "my files". Why? Because usually they are irreplaceable.

Now think about what your computer contains, and imagine where you'd be if right this instant, it was all gone, irretrievable, lost.

Most people learn the hard way that backups are the most important peripheral you can buy. They're not too expensive either. For under £65 you can purchase a backup drive that will store hundreds of thousands of photos, music files and an almost limitless number of office documents.

There are various ways to back up, from copying a photo onto a floppy disk to emailing a file to yourself, but most would agree that neither of these is a practical solution. Burning files onto CDs or DVDs is another good method, but of course you need to remember to do this on a regular basis.

A very effective method to backup data is to have two backup drives, one which is kept in a safe place (preferably a fire retardant safe or off-site) and the other one is carrying out the backup. Periodically (daily, weekly, monthly) the two backup drives would be switched to ensure that an up-to-date backup exists at all times.

We can advise you on which method would suit you best, supply the hardware and carry out any necessary installations.

If it's too late and you've arrived here after your hard drive has failed or your computer has become damaged and you need your data recovered, please see our Data Recovery section.