It is the activity of copying or archiving files and folders for the purpose of being able to restore them in case of data loss. Data loss can be caused by many things ranging from computer viruses to hardware failures to file corruption to fire, flood, or theft (etc).
Need
Data is the most important aspect of computing devices especially mobile. The operating system can be reinstalled and so can applications, but it may be difficult or impossible to recreate original data.
It is essential to always back up important information and have a plan for recovering from a system failure. An attacker could crash a computer’s operating system or data may be corrupted or wiped out by a hardware problem. Computers can be lost, stolen, or destroyed in a fire or other catastrophe.
You should back up your personal or critical work data on a regular basis. This means copying your files over to a protected system that you can access when those files are needed.
Main reasons to backup are
- Machines and Hardware Fail – Computing devices are tested and made for reliability but, they may fail and may be without any alert for same.
- Humans Make Mistakes – People are not perfect and can easily overlook an important step in a process and accidentally delete data or enter the wrong data.
- Nature is Unpredictable – Events like floods, typhoon, earthquake can severely affect computing devices.
- Malware and Unwanted programs – Unwanted program can be accidentally downloaded or copied to device, which may corrupt the stored data.
Types of Backup
There are many techniques for backing up files. The techniques to use depend on the type of data you’re backing up, how convenient you want the recovery process to be, and more. The types of backups are
- Normal/full backups – All files that have been selected are backed up.
- Differential backups – It is designed to create backup copies of files that have changed since the last normal backup.
- Incremental backups – It is designed to create backups of files that have changed since the most recent normal or incremental backup. Instead of copying the whole file, only the change is backed up.
- Daily backups Designed to back up files using the modification date on the file itself. If a file has been modified on the same day as the backup, the file will be backed up.
Knowledge of system backup (e.g., security, data sanitization, disposal, redeploying, testing backups, operational procedures). system restoration Knowledge of system restoration (e.g., full, partial, procedures, spares).