GoKawiilThere’s a saying that there are two types of people in the world: those who have experienced major data loss and those who will experience major data loss. World Backup Day is a good time to ensure that you’re protected against falling into the second category.
Fortunately, Apple devices make it very simple to keep them automatically backed up, but it is still worrying how many people fail to do so …
The risks of data loss
The personal data we store on our Apple devices can be literally priceless, with photos and videos the most obvious example. Imagine parents losing the video they shot of their toddler taking their very first steps, for example. Most of us have photos and videos that are only stored digitally and would be heartbreaking to lose forever.
There are many other types of data whose loss could cause us major problems. Imagine that your calendar data was lost and you now have no record of all your future meetings, appointments, and plans. What if you lost all your financial records and had to explain that to the IRS next tax season?
Other examples that could have major implications are losing all your stored passwords, Apple Notes, your stored emails, and even text messages with sentimental value.
One estimate suggests that around 140,000 hard drives fail every week. Another that 113 phones are lost or stolen every single minute.
‘One is none, two is one’
Another IT saying is that “one is none and two is one.” In other words, having a single copy of your data can instantly turn into no copies when your media fails. Having two copies can very quickly reduce you to having just one in the same circumstances.
Best practice is to have at least three copies of your important data, with one of them stored remotely. Fortunately, cloud services make this extremely easy to achieve, with zero effort after initial setup.
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