ASAP Computer Repair

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Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. President to ride in an automobile while in office.

Tech Term of the Day: Backup
Backup is the most important computer term you should know.

A backup is a copy of one or more files created as an alternate in case the original data is lost or becomes unusable. For example, you may save several copies of a research paper on your computer as backup files in case you decide to use a previous revision. Better yet, you could save the backups to a USB flash drive, which would also protect the files if the hard drive failed, or even save a copy to a cloud storage site in case an accident causes damage to both the computer and flash drive.

Most computer components, like hard drives and solid-state drives, can run for years without crashing. However, like all electronic devices, they are not immune to problems. An electrical short or physical damage (especially when it comes to laptops and mobile devices) can cause data to become unrecoverable, so it's wise to maintain backups of important files on multiple devices.

Hardware malfunctions are not the only reason to maintain backups. Software problems can also damage your files. File system corruption can damage directory structures and cause entire folders to disappear. You may mistakenly delete files, or a virus may corrupt or encrypt them. Program installation conflicts can make applications or files unusable, and software bugs can accidentally delete files and folders. If you don't have backups of your important files, an unexpected event could erase them for good.