Our modern, digital lives churn out terabytes and terabytes of data per day, and most of it is pretty important to us. Those photo rolls of memories with friends and family, important documents, and other files are all kept on storage drives, but what happens if a drive dies? With data recovery being time-consuming, expensive, and not always reliable, it's already too late to worry about keeping a backup copy on another device.

The depressingly common occurrence of personal data being lost because of inadequate backup strategies led to the creation of World Backup Day, which is celebrated every year on March 31. Well, maybe celebrated isn't the correct term, but it's turned from a simple Reddit tale of woe into a worldwide phenomenon with plenty of big corporate sponsors. The only thing the organizers want you to do? Generate at least one backup of your data on that day so you won't end up dataless.

What is World Backup Day?

A timely reminder to back up your important data before it's too late

What started with a small group of Redditors is now an annual commemorative date across the tech industry to remind users that backups are an important part of life. Data loss could happen to anyone and is more common than you might think. Here are some statistics that might help sway your mind to create regular backups:

• 75% of data loss is caused by human error
• 10% of hard drives don't last longer than four years
• 76% of organizations experienced ransomware attacks in 2023
• 2,200+ cyberattacks happen daily

That's a lot of chances for data loss, and the only way to guard against it happening to you is by creating backups of all your important data. Every March 31, along with pledging to create at least one backup and spread the word online and in-person, World Backup Day gives us a chance to talk about digital preservation efforts.

For example, the internet is constantly experiencing link rot, where websites link to other website pages that disappear for a wide variety of reasons. To keep a record of those resources before they go, you could self-host a bookmark manager that not only keeps a catalog of the links but downloads an archival version so that the information is not lost. You'll also want to add that catalog to your existing backup strategy. If you don't have a backup strategy, World Backup Day is as good a time as any to start planning one.

Redditors got the idea from a joke post

You never know how a cleverly worded Reddit post will evolve

You can never quite know what posts on Reddit will go viral, but it's rarer still when a joking post turns into something that the storage industry recognizes yearly. Back in 2011, a Redditor posted their tale of woe about a hard drive that had died, taking all their data with it. The post was written with some tongue-in-cheek humor, remonstrating Reddit as a whole for not reminding the user to back up their hard drive before disaster struck.

Well, that struck a chord with several other Redditors, who decided to propose a "Back-Up Day", which soon turned into a movement with social media handles, a hastily spun-up website, and a whole ton of comments wanting to help, either with their own backup strategies or important information. The chosen date, March 31, was also intentionally picked to be just before April Fool's Day to drive home the message that data security is no laughing matter.

Now, it's a yearly endeavor and one that's sorely needed, as data loss incidents occur all the time, and you never know when your storage is going to fail. You don't want to be like that Redditor who started it all off by lamenting their loss. Back up your drives, your devices, and anything else you might value.

Some good backup strategies to implement

You know you should back up more than once a year, right?

Now you know you should be creating backups, but where and how should you do so? Well, that all depends on your mix of devices and files, but whatever you do, you should follow the 3-2-1 rule. That's three copies on at least two devices and one off-site copy. That all seems a large amount of data, but without the redundancy it offers, you could easily be left with no data, even if you had a backup copy. We've put together a short list of options for storing and creating these backups, which cover most home users:

• Cloud storage providers
• Offsite storage
• Personal NAS
• Time Machine
• With iCloud
• SyncBack
• Backup your Android phone
• Backup your NAS

By keeping regular backups, you guard against losing large chunks of your digital life. Nobody wants to lose their camera roll with years of cherished memories or business-critical information. Create a backup schedule, automate it if you can, and regularly check the quality of your backups by doing a restore option every so often. A backup isn't really a backup unless it's been tested, because any number of things could go wrong, and you'd end up with garbled backup data.

While World Backup Day is March 31, good backup strategies are for life

Whether you follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy or take it further with cold storage for your most important data, good backup habits are a lifelong endeavor. Think of it as a digital lockbox for your important information, and know that it should be guarded accordingly. And whatever strategy you decide to implement, test your backups to ensure their integrity. Only then can you be sure your data is safe and ready to restore your devices should the worst happen.