World Backup Day

Anyone who has done a significant amount of work on a computer should know that they are literally moments away from losing everything they’re working on. Computer crashes happen all the time, and they tend to occur without warning. If a person doesn’t have a backup, this can mean that they’ve lost everything they had on the computer.

And that’s just a nightmare scenario. That’s why everyone should take steps to ensure that their important files are backed up. A holiday that reminds us to do just that is called World Backup Day. This holiday falls on March 31st and encourages everyone to ensure that their computer is properly backed up now and in the future.

The History of World Backup Day

This holiday was originally created by Maxtor—a hard drive company that would eventually be acquired by Seagate Technology. Except it started out as World Backup Month, not World Backup Day.

Maxtor was founded in 1982 and was purchased in 2006, so we’re assuming that World Backup Month was created sometime between those 24 years, but we were unable to find any information that tells us the exact date it was created.

We probably can’t find that information because someone forgot to back it up somewhere. Regardless, this holiday would eventually morph into the holiday it’s known as today. It’s been celebrated by people dedicated to protecting their files ever since.

Facts About Hard Drives

Okay, we’ve gone and done it now. We’ve stumbled upon a holiday that encourages people to back up their computer hard drives. Why is that a problem? It’s a problem because we now have an excuse to lay down all the hard drive facts that we know. By the way, we’ve listed these facts below so that everyone can appreciate the following hard drive facts.

  • The first hard drive, the 350 Disk Storage Unit, was invented in 1956.
  • The very first hard drive only had a data capacity of 3.5 MB and it cost over $34,000.
  • The first hard drive weighed a ton and was about the size of a refrigerator.

Observing World Backup Day

The main point of this holiday is to encourage everyone to take the time to back up their computer hard drives. Fortunately, that’s easier to do now than it ever has been in the past. There are external hard drives and USB sticks that can make backup super easy.

Some people also may choose to back up some of their less critical files to the cloud. But an important thing to keep in mind is that backups should be done on a regular basis, and not just once a year on the day of this holiday.

Anyone observing this day should also take the time to spread the word about this holiday far and wide. This can be done by telling people you know about the importance of backing up their files, or by using the hashtag #WorldBackupDay on social media. We encourage everyone to make sure that they make at least monthly backups of their data, if not weekly. That’s the best way to protect your valuable data.

When is it?
This year (2024)
March 31 Sunday
Next year (2025)
March 31 Monday
Last year (2023)
March 31 Friday
Topic
Products & Technology