It's kind of hard to believe how casual people are with their electronic data, notes Josef Reitberger, editor of German computer magazine Chip. After all, if one stores data on one's laptop and nowhere else, and then that laptop dies, the files are gone forever.
"You've got your irreplaceable photos of your kids on your laptop and that's that. When the hard drive breaks - and every hard drive breaks at some point - then everything is gone," he says.
Yet a lot of computer users tune out when they're warned to perform data backups. After all, the process of transferring data to a back-up drive is usually a nuisance.
Software automatically copies everything from the laptop, creating a backup without a lot of the fuss, Reitberger notes.
For extra safety he recommends keeping data on three drives: the original machine and two backups. It turns out this is not hugely difficult.
If you can already link the laptop by a wireless connection in the home to a network storage device, all you need to do is buy a device that contains not one but two backup drives.
What surprises him even more, he says, is that these so-called mirrored drives are only now becoming common. They've only been widely offered on the European market for a few month, but are now even on sale at discount shops.
The principle, familiar in professional computing for decades, is simple. The two drives in the housing communicate frequently with one another so that they record the same data.
Thus, if you copy your vacation photos to Drive A, it's only a matter of time before they also show up on Drive B.
Then, if one of the drives ever fails, the second one is still there.
Since they're on a network, they're also theoretically accessible from anywhere in the world there's an internet connection.
Permissions can be given to make the drives broadly accessible. One could create a family drive, for example.
Reitberger emphasises that a mirrored drive, which you should keep in a safe place in the house, is not technically a backup, since computer scientists define backups as data dumps that are packed safely away and not constantly interacting with a computer.
Separation means it would be impossible to accidentally erase data, which is not a protection one enjoys with a mirror drive.
The new mirrored drives do not come cheap. Drives from Western Digital's MyCloud Mirror line can cost about 250 euros (269 dollars). For that price, you get two drives with 2 terabytes each. The largest model costs 600 euros and comes with two 6-terabyte drives.
Western Digital models designed for home use can be installed quickly and easily and don't require a lot of technical knowledge.
Meanwhile, products from Synology require the buyer to know a bit more about what they're doing. The Taiwan-based company sells empty housings that range in cost from 150 to 800 euros.
Buyers are expected to buy their own drives. This costs more, but means users can choose the drives they like and can even build in drives they've already been using. And it makes it easier to replace a drive that fails.
"We've had this option on the market since 2005 and the practical aspect is that you can upgrade it at any time," says Sabine Brueckner, a Synology spokeswoman. So, if a person finds they're running out of space on a drive, they can just install a bigger one.
Both companies say they put a lot of emphasis on security - not just against data loss, but also against theft - which is why they include encryption.
Frank Timmerman of the Institute for Internet Security thinks you data is pretty secure in such a set-up.
"In general, these systems are secure, even if you can't look into the encryption and are, thus, required to trust the manufacturer."
"Everyone worries about security with jewellery. You lock it away," says Reitberger. "But it's funny how no one worries about that with data. After all, the video of your child's first steps is a lot more valuable than any ring."
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