The importance of proper data backup is becoming a bigger issue as we rely more on information to control and organize our daily lives and affairs. These days virtually anything can be translated into data and our world has become a huge hodge-podge of intertwined data. When you look at large corporation, data loss can results in millions of dollars of losses. For the home user it can mean the loss of very precious and personal data.

Regardless of how you look at it, you need to make regular backups a habit and a part of regular computer "maintenance". Business owners and those who have sensitive data needs to be a lot more cautious and adopt a very strict approach to doing regular backups. If you think that this does not affect you, then think again. Here are 3 reasons why you must keep backups:

1. Hard Drive Crashes

No hard drive is immune to failure. Although the top brands are subject to strict testing, many of them fail after just a few months of use - not because its poor quality but just because of the nature of the product. Dust, magnets and even a hard bump can be enough to bust your hard drive for good.

2. Lost And Stolen

These days with everybody carrying laptops around, lost and stolen computers is becoming a big deal. If you work on a laptop and store important data on it, then you need to be extra cautious and make sure that you have a daily backup routine. For business people on the move, this is vitally important and setting up a remote backup server can be a great investment.

3. Human Error

Creating file backups is not just to protect you against the loss of data. Its also protecting you against human error. In organizations where people collaborate on large projects its easy for someone to screw up. The ability to backtrack and to ad up a previous version of the file can be priceless. In some rare cases disgruntled employees have been know to deliberately corrupt files in which case a backup can save your business.

There are a lot more at issue when it comes to data protection and most businesses are now compelled to do it as part of a quality control or even insurance policy. Regardless of how you look at it, its become a part of our daily lives and if you don't do it sooner or later it will catch you out.