Given there seems to be a day or week to celebrate or commemorate just about everything, it's not surprising that there's an annual event to remember and focus on backing up our critical data. That day is 31 March and it falls this Sunday. This seems like a good time to make sure you don't forget to get your backup ducks lined up.

Natural disaster responses increasingly rely on electronic devices for communication. In the aftermath of a destructive storm, your phone or tablet can be a literal lifeline — so it needs to actually work.

One of the things I like to do every now and then — especially around this time of year—is to start fresh. I’ll think about all the services I’ve signed up for and don’t actually use. Going through and deleting them helps me feel better about my digital sprawl, and it’s a practice I recommend everyone try regularly.

There's a lesson almost everyone learns the hard way. Having a tried and tested backup regime is critical for protecting your data. But if you haven't yet learned that lesson, and you were one of the unfortunate people who were smashed with the recent Windows 10 update that deleted files then you'll be looking for file recovery options.

Here are the steps you need to take - before and after disaster strikes.

The subject of file backups and online storage came up the other day at a Lifehacker staff meeting, and resident door-holder Nick Douglas chimed in that his solution for backing up his laptop was easy: He never keeps any important files on it. Everything — and he means everything — lives in the cloud.

We're turning the lens around for this week's Ask Lifehacker. Our Managing Editor Virginia Smith posed a question in our internal Slack channel that cuts wide and deep: "It's safe to delete photos from my iPhone, right?"

There are many reasons you might want to back up your Gmail account, such as: It’s good to have a copy of your most-important data; you’re about to be fired from your job and you want to save everything you did; you’d just like a little extra protection in case someone hacks your account and takes it over (or deletes it).

When you walk into retail store to buy an external hard drive, there are dozens of options to choose from. And there's always the option of buying a hard drive or SSD and putting together your own. So, manufacturers have to find ways to add value to what is a reasonably straightforward device you can rig up yourself. LaCie's answer is the Rugged SECURE. As the name suggests, it combines with physical and logical security features.

This app isn't something you'll probably have to use very often -- we hope -- but it's a great tool if you're upgrading your system and need to move everything from an old hard drive to a new drive.

We've all done it. Over-written or deleted a file only to find out we really needed whatever information we just destroyed or damaged. So, what do you do? Is there a way out of this or do you just curl up in the foetal position and cry? There are options for recovering lost files. Some are easy, others are harder. let's look at some of the options.

Veeam has announced the availability of Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3. The new software allows enterprises to replace legacy backup offerings and manage availability for all workloads — virtual, physical, and cloud from a single Veeam “pane of glass". The new release also includes the company's Universal Storage API, a new storage interface that will allow Veeam to rapidly support new storage integrations going forward.

Veeam has announced new data protection and availability software for Azure hybrid cloud environments. This means a single backup, recovery and availability solution can cover you across multiple cloud platforms as well as your own data centre.

Big fans of the cloud as we are, there's no doubt relying solely on keeping your stuff stored remotely is a risky strategy. Accounts get hacked. Companies fold. And if you don't have backups of your most precious Snapchats and Gmails, then they can disappear in a puff of data center smoke. Here's how to make sure you've got local copies of everything.

Wikipedia might not always be the most accurate source of information out there, but it is one of those things that I'm constantly thankful is around. You can actually ensure that the site is always there for you, even when you don't have a web connection, by downloading it in its entirety.

One of the best uses for cloud storage is offsite backups. I don't mean file syncing but real backups you can use to restore entire systems or applications. CrashPlan has, until now, offered some solid options for home and SMB users, But CrashPlan's owner, Code42, has announced that CrashPlan for Home will shut down on 23 October 2017.

The modern enterprise no longer has a monolithic application and infrastructure stack housed purely within its own data centre. Australia has embraced virtualisation at some of the highest levels in the world and we are bounding forward in adopting cloud services as well. This is completely changing the way we protect our data and ensure high levels of availability. At the recent VeeamON Forum, held in Sydney, I spoke with Veeam's Co-CEO Peter McKay about what the company is doing around those challenges and how he is travelling after a year of sharing the CEO job.

A simple insurance policy should a tech disaster strike your home, Google's free cloud sync tool has some great new features.

Traditionally the simplest way to protect your important files like digital photos, school assignments and business reports was to copy them to a USB drive, or perhaps to a Network Attached Storage drive tucked away in the spare room.

While Google Drive (and it's competitors such as Dropbox and OneDrive) do a great job of making files available on multiple devices, they aren't true backup tools that retain files indefinitely. Google is remedying that with the release of Google Backup and Sync for macOS and Windows.

Over the weekend, British Airways IT systems had a meltdown resulting in the cancellation of all services out of Heathrow and Gatwick airports. While this sort of issue would be a major issue on a quiet day, the fact it happened on a long weekend exacerbated the situation. Australian Business Traveller says it could cost the airline a pretty penny as passengers can make claims for compensation for sums ranging from €250 (A$375) through to €600 (A$900) per passenger under EU law.