Storage and backup are part of data preservation, which refers to maintaining data over time so that it can still be found, understood, accessed, and used in the future.

You might think that by saving your data in one or more locations, you've ensured its effective preservation. However, with the rapid development of digital technology, your digital data are at risk of one or more of the following issues:

■ File formats may not be compatible with future software, making them unreadable.

■ Even if a document can still be opened with new software, it may be altered to the point of being unreadable or unreliable for continued research.

■ Storage media may degrade, get scratched, or break, especially if they are portable (e.g., USB drives), which could result in data loss.

■ Files or data will not be understood because supporting documentation or metadata are missing, or this information was not properly preserved either.