Recover Data From Damaged Hard Drives, Corrupt or Failed Backups and Deleted File Recovery

CBL Data Recovery Weblog

When a backup drive is not a "backup"

(Nov 28, 04:58 PM)

Many times we get customers who bring in their external drives just after a crash. Often the external drive is referred to as their “backup”.

“I copied all of my data to my backup and it failed …”

Well, what about your original data? You mean this was your only copy? So it’s not your “backup” then?

The misuse of this term often confuses me. A “backup” implies that a safeguard is in place when the original data source fails. Unfortunately this is often not the case. Calling your external drive your “backup” does not make it invulnerable to hardware failure.

Ideally you should keep a copy of your data on your “backup” drive in addition to the original data on your desktop, laptop or external drive. This way you will always have your data in 2 locations. So when your hard drive fails, your “backup” really is your backup.

Remember: copying all of your data to your “backup” drive does not ensure data security as “backup” drives can fail too.