There’s a reason why backups have become such an important strategy for data recovery: with such a complicated system, there are many chances for something to go wrong, causing frustrating data loss and corruption. Whether you have lost your personal Excel files or MDF database files that many people rely on, backups can be key—but they are not infallible, and when they fail, it’s important to have a backup plan. Take a look at these common causes of backup failure:
Human error
One of the most common reasons for failed backups is human error. User error could be as simple as forgetting to run a scheduled backup, failing to save a file, or overwriting a file. Perhaps the hardware or media were stored incorrectly, or damaged in the process. Another common user error is that only partial data was saved, or frequent use of incremental backups (only backing up new data) increased the chance of corruption when you perform a full backup.
The fact that so little can result in data loss and corruption is a testament to how a database administrator must be prepared to recover information quickly, as whoever relies on the database, which could be a whole business or group of users if you are working with SQL server recovery, will not be able to access their information. You also shouldn’t forget the personal aspect of not being prepared due to human error—even though simple mistakes can be made easily be even the most seasoned administrators, it can be difficult to deal with being the source of a human error.
File corruption
Especially with large databases, as backups typically deal with the transfer of large amounts of information, you will have a chance of files becoming corrupted during the actual backup itself. When your strategy for data recovery causes data loss and corruption, this can’t be your only line of defense. You don’t want to resort to your backup only to find important information missing or unusable.
Hardware and media failure
The hardware and media used to transfer and store information can fail, causing data loss and corruption. This is considered to be the main causes of data loss. The most common type is a hard drive crash, but it could also be due to aged or cheap equipment. You should keep in mind that when you are shopping for recovery tools, cutting corners may defeat the entire point when you find that your cheap SATA disk array performs cheaply as well. Perhaps your libraries, tape drives, disk arrays, or other hardware has aged or become damaged.
So, what happens when backups fail? It’s time to take a look at backup recovery strategies for your backup, such as advanced recovery software that can repair and recover lost and damaged files that backups were unable to save.
Datanumen has everything you need to build your own data repair and recovery toolkit. From Word repair to Excel recovery, Outlook repair and SQL recovery, our software is trusted by Fortune 500 companies worldwide.