1. Computer Data Backups

3. Who backs-up their data?
Survey commissioned by Seagate in May 2012:
27% of U.S. adults personally have lost files and found that it was upsetting for them
11% have a continuous backup plan
10% have a daily backup plan
Survey conducted by Parks Associates in 2011:
< 25% of households in the survey have a weekly backup plan
4% are diligent enough to manually perform a backup on a daily basis

4. Why backup your data? Theft Damage Hardware failures
Viruses, malware, ransomware
Natural disasters

5. What makes a good backup system?
Occurs automatically – “set it and forget it”
Occurs at a regular interval (daily/weekly)
Stored in a remote location
Easily accessible
Not dependent on a single piece of hardware/media

7. CD’s & DVD’s Longevity:
Unrecorded burnable media lasts 5-10 years
According to manufacturers, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more
More conservative estimates say 5-20 years
Factors that affect disc life expectancy include the following:
type
manufacturing quality
condition of the disc before recording
quality of the disc recording
handling and maintenance
environmental conditions

8. Flash Drives Can last up to 10 years
10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the memory technology used
Easily lost or damaged

9. Hard Drives & Solid State Drives (SSD’s)
HD’s:
3-5 year lifespan
SSD’s:
10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the memory technology used

10. Cloud Sync Providers
Syncs the contents of a folder to cloud servers, and to other computers that you choose
Dropbox
Free size: 2GB
Google Drive
Free size: 15GB
Microsoft OneDrive
Free size: 5GB

11. Cloud-based Backup Providers
Service that runs on your computer that sends copies of your files to cloud servers
Single computer plans start at around $60/year
Based on the two review articles above, CrashPlan is the top rated service.