UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

Data can be lost due to hardware failure, theft, accidental deletion or malware. A robust backup strategy follows the principle of redundancy by keeping copies in different physical or logical locations. External drives and encrypted cloud storage provide alternatives if the main device fails. Regularly updating these backups ensures that recent work is preserved. Hence, this practice is most reliable.

Option A:
Relying on a single laptop without backups is risky because a single incident can wipe out all work. Academic research often represents months or years of effort, so such vulnerability is unacceptable.

Option B:
A USB drive is convenient but can be lost, damaged or corrupted. Using it as the only storage medium gives a false sense of security and still violates the redundancy principle.

Option C:
This option correctly combines periodic copying with diversification of storage media. It acknowledges that backups must be systematic rather than occasional, and that both local and remote options strengthen resilience.

Option D:
Paper printouts may be useful for reading but do not preserve dynamic aspects like code, databases or multimedia. They also make restoration time-consuming and error-prone, and they cannot be easily updated.