110 NOVEMBER 2019NOVEMB |COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381
Here we consider several aspects of
looking after our data, but our aim isn’t
to delve intointernet security.While we
certainly can’t overstatethe importance
of adopting safepractices online,advice
here isn’t in short supply.Instead, we’re
delving intothree areas that attract
much less attention, but are equally
important. First, we look at how to
preserve your data –that is, how to
handle it so it will still be available to
you in the future,whether that’s a
month down the line,ayear,orseveral
decades. Second, if things do go wrong
and you lose your data, most commonly
by accidental deletion or adisk crash,
we investigatemethods of getting it
back. And third, because it can be
detrimental if data falls intothe wrong
hands, we delve intomethods of secure
deletion that you should use,for
example,before disposing of an old PC.
PRESERVING DATA
It’s all tooeasy to assume that data
lasts forever but, sadly,this isn’t the
case.We’ve probably all had an
over-reliance on the dependability of
hard disks at some point, and mayhave
paid the price.It’s good practice,of
course,toback up data, just in case
your disk suffers acrash, but even if
you do this on aregular basis, questions
remain on what media you should use.
Then there’s archiving. Often
confused with backing up,archiving is
making acopy, perhaps of data that
you don’t use on aregular basis, that
will be accessible in the future,perhaps
along time intothe future.Even more
important is the question of where and
how to store that data.
When it comes to the various types
of media available,one of the key
questions is whether it’s better to use
optical discs such as CDs and DVDs for
archiving, or rely on flash storage or
even an external hard disk. According to
experts at the UK Data Archive at the
University of Essex, which has hosted
the UK’s largest collection of digital
research data in the social sciences and
humanities since 1967,there’s no one
right answer,because there are so
many unknowns. While recognising
that manufacturers will provide
information on data longevity,much of
the media hasn’t been around long
enough to know forsure.
“Except with the aid of accelerated
ageing, it is difficult to prove the figures
claimed by some manufacturers,”the
UK Data Archive tells us.
AGEING PROCESS
Reference to accelerated ageing should
not be taken to to suggest that all
these types of media can be considered
safeover shorter timescales, however.
Although almost certainly the exception
rather than the rule,there have been
reports of data on many of these forms
of storage being unreadable after as
little as five years.
Forthis reason, and because media
can become obsolete–for example,
most people can’t read floppydisks
today, although admittedly you can
still pick up drives on eBay–the UK
Data Archive suggests that the
solution should never involve making
just the one copy.
“Best practice guidance for
consumers more generally
would be to save and store
multiple copies,”itadvises.
With many of us now
relying on cloud-based
storage,perhaps
this might offer a
more secure
future forour data. Certainly,well-
respected cloud-storage companies
store data on multiple disks and
servers, often across multiple sites.
But while the technical risk might be
reduced, there’s undoubtedly aconcern
over the long-term future of the
organisations themselves. It might be
obvious, but the obvious often gets
overlooked, so the advice given here is
certainly worth considering; namely,not
to put all your eggs in the one basket.
“Using multiple independent cloud
providers is one wayofspreading the
risks, although this doesn’t deal with
any of the risk of format migration,”
the UK Data Archive notes.
This latter point is avery important
one and relates to the fact that, in
addition to ‘bit rot’ –the zeros and
ones just leaking awayover time –
and media obsolescence,there is also
the issue of format obsolescence when
we consider long-term archiving. In
other words, even if the data is
readable,will you –let alone future
generations –beable to interpret the
file format used to store your
documents and photographs?
PHOTO FINISH
When it comes to long-term protection
forour cherished photographs, the UK
Data Archive says generally an
open-standard lossless compressed
format is agood starting point.
“Metadata relating to the object
also needs to be taken intoaccount,
otherwise information like camera type
and GPS location maybelost. The
tendency to focus on Raw files by
some photographers, rather than the
potentially lossy formats like JPG, can
ABOVE:Don’t
make the mistake
of assuming that
data on common
forms of media
will last forever
BELOW:If you’ve
stored data on
floppies, chances
are you can’t read
them any more
