Loss of personal data on a USB, a real pain!!!! (Based on a true story)
USB flashdisks or pendrives have revolutionised the way we store data. Gone are the days when people possessed clunky, slow, 1MB floppy disks, as the average USB holds 1-2GB of data, some are larger (mine’s a 4GB).
With this much space, people tend to store lots of data on it. I did this, and ended up paying the ultimate price, when I managed to lose it in January. USB’s are so small, they can get lost or stolen at the drop of a hat. I managed to lose my USB in January, in University and despite many efforts to recover it, I still have not found it, despite hoping for a miracle (that being said, if you or somebody else found a Sandisk Cruzer Contour 4GB in London get in touch with the administrators!) it is now lost forever. Not only did I lose a fine USB, I also lost lots of data (including but not limited to a paper on long term care annuities which I had to write again, do you know how dull that is?!), because I stupidly, did not take enough safety precautions, during my failed search for the USB, I came across shed-loads of other USB’s that had been separated from their owners, this problem is not isolated.
If you have a USB, it may be a good idea to take some precautions, so if you do it won’t be such a disaster. Firstly, make regular backups of data. Try to download a backup programme, or use a file compressor like WinZip or WinRar. Save copies of your data onto a CD or DVD and update it weekly or monthly, so you have a copy of data if the master copy on your USB is lost.
However you should also make use of security features on your USB. I stupidly did not set a password on the USB, which would have been safe as the data would not be accessed by anyone with malicious intentions, my USB had a password facility on it, which I did not use.
On a Sandisk U3 enabled device, you should be able to set a password, and even backup. If not many good download sites like cnet can provide, safe and free software for your USB.
So there you have it, two simple steps to saving your data and peace of mind. I religiously do both now, after learning the hard way. So don’t learn the hard way, save your data now!
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