Protecting Data from Loss
Kenneth L. Kayser, David A. Michelson · PubMed Central · 1985
Business accounting systems have inherent protection against loss; scientific systems do not. When data loss is covert and not discovered promptly, recovery can be distressing, time consuming, and expensive. To help prevent loss and facilitate recovery, we use multiple safeguards. Magnetic and paper backups are utilized. Paper is more durable and retrieval of a few data is faster. Magnetic media are more fragile but superior for restoring large amounts of data. Paper is less expensive and takes longer to generate. We keep essential information in several files; loss in one file can be identified in another. Record audit is done by adding the unique sort keys for all records. This virtually assures detection of loss or duplication of a record. Important updates are entered through change files. Processes which require physical movement on the disk are protected by a recent backup and audited immediately.