Two-thirds of PC users have lost data

A new survey reckons that two-thirds of us have lost files from our PCs as a result of not backing up information. What's more, a significant proportion of us still don't back up. The survey stats, by online backup vendor Carbonite, estimates that as many as 25 per cent of people don't back up.

Despite the lack of backup going on throughout the country, 68 per cent consider their files to be 'extremely' or 'quite' important to them. Probably all that digital music and photos people have these days.

Over half of people that said they didn't backup tried to mitigate themselves by saying they simply didn't know how to do it. A quarter of people said they just couldn't be bothered. Most of these were the younger generation who - it would seem - have a more laissez faire attitude to data storage.

"A marked increase in Internet take-up, higher broadband speeds and the presence of one or more PCs in most homes has resulted in people keeping increasingly valuable contents on their hard drives," comments Carbonite's Floyd Bradley.

"The most surprising result from this survey is how many people do not back up at all. Anyone with a PC should regularly back up their files, including costly music and digital photos."

It's still DVD

The most popular medium for backup is still CD or DVD (40 per cent) while external hard drives are second popular. However, the report highlights a sin that many of us are guilty of - 60 per cent of people leave their backup drive in the same room as their PC. Not really common sense, is it? Only 5 per cent keep their backup in a separate building.

As Carbonite warns, most home contents insurance doesn't cover information stored on a hard drive, even if the PC itself is insured.

Frequency of backup is also a concern, with 37 per cent backing up only once a month.