Americans Not Backing Up Photos

Americans are not backing up their digital photos, music, documents or other types of files, according to a new study from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)

A Digital Storage Study shows one in three consumers don't see the need to back up their files, while nearly a quarter (22 percent) say they aren't backing up files because it's too time consuming. While modern hard disks are more reliable than never they still are mechanical device and still have the potential for catastrophic failure. Manufacturers continue to push the boundaries of technology to store more data on physically smaller hard drives, keeping the spectre of disk failure ever present.

Photos (85 percent) are the most stored files, while productivity files, such as home office documents (59 percent) ranked third.

"The issue appears to be a combination of lack of awareness of storage options and ease of use," says CEA's Director of Market Research, Tim Herbert. "Generally, consumers don't know how to back up their data and if they do, they're failing to back up data because they claim it takes too much time."

The research shows consumers are satisfied with their storage options. Eight out of 10 respondents report using their home computer as their main long-term storage option. Unfortunately, it may take the rude shock of total loss of data to make them realise the insecurity of digital storage.

While CD and DVD formats are popular for long-term backups the CEA recommends keeping an extra copy off-site, say at the office. This helps keep your data safe in case your home is damaged by fire, flood or earthquake. For additional data security use an online backup service to protect your content from disasters and/or hardware failures.