Contrary to what many people want to believe, computer media, such as hard drives, floppy disks, and even CDs, can go bad. Data can go bad due to faulty media (yes, not every floppy disk you purchase is perfect, many come already with sector errors that formatting merely 'hides'), frequent use, or simply the media just getting old.

That's right, old media can deteriorate, ruining the bits (information) contained therein.

Therefore, if you have to keep data for long-term storage, perhaps financial records created from your accounting software, you may want to consider refreshing your backups at regular intervals in case one of the older backups goes bad. Yes, this may cost more money at first, but how much money and time can be lost if a supposedly trusted backup dies at a critical time?

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