Backing up » History » Version 2

Version 1 (Steve Welburn, 2012-08-22 02:29 PM) → Version 2/33 (Steve Welburn, 2012-08-22 02:35 PM)

h1. Backing up

h2. Why back up your data ?

* Hard disks die
* Portable devices can be lost or broken
* Disasters happen

h2. How to back up data

The core principle is that backup copies of data should be stored in a different location to the main copy.

If you delete your local copy of the data then the primary copy will be the original backup... is that copy backed up anywhere ?

Suitable locations for backups are:
* A firesafe
* A network copy
** An network drive e.g. provided by the institution
** Internet storage (in the cloud)
** A data repository - this could be a public thematic / institutional repository for publishing completed research datasets, or an internal repository for archiving datasets during research
* A portable device / portable media which you keep somewhere other than under your desk