A backup file is just like an insurance of your computer data and files. In an insurance policy, you will get an insured amount when you lose any of your insured belongings. In the same way, a backup file ensures you the safety of your computer data and files if you lose them due to any reason, i.e. corruption or accidental deletion. Generally backup is a technique or process to create duplicate copies of selected data and files on a system and all the copies are stored in a file, called a backup file.
If your computer data is backed up, then you are an insured user. You have no need to fear of data loss or data corruption as you have a.bkf file, which contains all the copies of your data. If you have a valid BKF file, then you can easily restore your data at any time. There are many software programs available for taking backup of computer data, but the most popular are: NT-Backup and Symantec Backup Exec. NT-Backup is an inbuilt backup utility for Microsoft Windows and very popular among Windows users. Symantec Backup Exec (formerly known as VERITAS) is a commercialware program available for many operating systems.
In these days corruption has become one of the most critical issues for computer users. Corruption may occur at any time due to various reasons and can become the main responsible reason for data loss. In such situation, if you have a valid backup file (remember I said valid), then you can prevent from sudden or unexpected data loss. You can restore your lost or corrupted data or file from your BKF file.
Have you ever thought what would happen if your BKF file becomes invalid due to corruption? Yes, it is true. Like other computer files, a BKF is also prone to corruption. It can easily become invalid or inaccessible due to corruption. A BKF file may become corrupted or damaged due to various causes which are given below:
- Interruption in backup job: While taking back up of your computer data, if the backup job gets interrupted or disturbed by cause, it may result in corruption in backup file.
- Virus attacks: A computer virus may attack on your computer drives and the data stored in them. It may also affect your backup files by deleting or overwriting some part of the file.
- Sudden system shut down: If a running computer system gets shut down all of a sudden due to power outage, it might be dangerous for you. You may lose all your data and files stored in your system hard drive. This may also affect your system hard drive or your hard drive may get damaged and all your data may become inaccessible.
- Hard drive failure: Hard drive failure occurs when a system hard drive starts malfunctioning and the stored data cannot be accessed. Other than this, a head crash is also an important cause of hard drive failure. This may incur severe data corruption or loss.
- Software malfunction: Software malfunction is a failure or fault in a computer program that may create unexpected results like corruption. If your Backup Exec program starts malfunctioning, it may create corrupt backup files or make the files corrupted it you try to restore them by using it.
A corrupt BKF file is inaccessible and cannot be opened. So if it does not get opened, you cannot restore anything from it. All the data and files stored in the BKF file might be lost forever. It would be a very frustrating situation for a user. In such situation you have only two options: first is to repair the corrupt BKF file and another one is to recover its data by using third-party recovery software. There are many third-party recovery applications available in the market for recovering data from corrupt BKF files. But you should check it before you buy any one of them. It can recover data from corrupt backup files save them to their original format.