Acronis miscalculates data on users' bad backup habits

The survey section where the percentages were taken out--the numbers just don't justify what Acronis said in its report.

(Credit: Acronis)

Acronis, a major vendor of backup software, released a report earlier this week stating that about 87 percent of computer users back up their data once every two or three months--way less frequently than recommended. This suggests that most of us live dangerously when it comes to backing up.

The survey was widely reported in the press, but it turns out the numbers didn't seem to go well with Acronis' report.

The percentages released to the media were taken from the question "How often do you back up your hard drive or files?" Results include: 48 percent for "once a week (or more)"; 55 percent for "2-3 times a month"; 81.5 percent for "once a month"; 86.8 percent for "every 2-3 months", 91.4 percent for "2-3 times a year", 94.6 percent for "once a year or less"; and 25.5 percent for "never."

It may be that I'm Asian and extra good with math, but I couldn't help but notice that when added up, the numbers total around 500 percent. Other ways to interpret the chart didn't justify the reported 87 percent, either. So maybe you're not as bad at backing up as some media reports told you you were.

Marc Mombourquette, Acronis' product marketing manager, confirmed Wednesday morning that there was an error in the data calculation. He added that "in the future, we'll (be) restructuring the survey to allow only one answer and double-checking the total number of answers with the number of reported responses." In the meantime, the company is working on a revised report on the survey and the possibility of re-doing it entirely.

Preliminary recalculations by Acronis show that 64 percent of some 6,100 participants who answered the survey said they back up once every two or three months; 36 percent say they back up once a week.

Even with these new, more encouraging numbers, I still believe most of us don't take backing up seriously enough. Generally, if you use a computer frequently, it's important to back it up at least once a week.

Apart from True Image, a product by Acronis, there are also quite a few free and powerful backup products I recommend, such as GFi Backup Home Edition.

Remember, it's better to be safe than sorry, and you can never be too careful when it comes to important data (unless, of course, you're happy being a statistic).

[whizkid454]

Those are probably consecutive percentages. For example, if you back up once a week, you also backup at least once per month, at least once per year, at least twice per year, etc. So the higher percentages should be higher than previous time frames...

[ngodong]

Yes, I thought about that too but you can't have 94.6% backup once a year AND 25.5% never back up.

[cyclingkitties]

@ngodong

You are not reading the questions carefully. 94.9% back up once a year OR LESS, which includes Never. The 5.1% left over are the 124 people who skipped the question.

There is nothing wrong with the chart or numbers at all.

I'm not Asian, but I did go to MIT, which may be why I get it...

[ngodong]

@ cyclingkitties, then the survey should say that 100% back up once a year or less, in which case what's the point of a survey?

[cyclingkitties]

As I said, some people skipped the question, and they are not counting those in the 94.9%. This is standard practice in multiple-question surveys. 75% of the respondents may answer one question, 95% answer another, and so on. It would be wrong to show each question adding up to 100%.

[cyclingkitties]

PS the better focus of this blog entry would have been the nearly 50% who back up at least once a week. In my experience, that's a pretty incredibly high number.

Your interpretation of "about 87 percent of computer users back up their data once every two or three months--way less frequently than recommended." is wrong also. What the chart shows is that about 87% of computer users back up AT LEAST once every two or three months, including the 48% who back up at least once a week or more.

In general, your entire article misunderstands and misinterprets the data and should be corrected. Not everyone reads comments.

[ngodong]

@ cyclingkitties you got it, all interpretations, including the 87% back up once every 2-3 months, were done by Acronis yes they were incorrect. That's the main reason for the blog. I think you should skip the numbers and read the text a bit :).

[cyclingkitties]

Ah, I didn't realize that first interpretation was theirs and not yours. Fine.

But you later say "I couldn't help but notice that when added up, the numbers total around 500 percent." which makes no sense. These are cumulative percentages and are not meant to be added up.

[ngodong]

@cyclingkitties , you are right, but that's just one (and most obvious) of the scenarios (it would take too long and be boring to bring up all of them -- not everyone like numbers like you :) ) to show how the chart might not make sense. I have discussed this multiple times with Acronis and we went through different ways to interpret it, none was flawless.

[upuaut]

There should be an option for 'once every more than a year' for those who back up once every 1.5,2,3,4, or 5 years, like i do.

[Jack K1]

Back up? I back up nightly. I don't see any point in risking more than a day's worth of work. Seriously.
I image my drive monthly because I also don't have a day or two to waste rebuilding my machine. Drives fail. It's in their job description. It's like musical chairs. When the drive fails, the game is over, and whatever you had is gone, gone, gone.

Math skills? Marketing people aren't hired for their math skills. More's the pity.

[DJ_Lae]

They don't add up, but I can see how they did it. The Full and Incremental columns' percentages are calculated from the Response column. The way they're stacked is misleading, perhaps, but not incorrect. They won't add up, either, as some people will do full or incremental backups (or both).

Unless they really wanted to say how many people in each bracket performed (or didn't perform) a particular backup type, which seems weird.

[Banderasky]

I don't care about this arguement, it's just a promotion method of Acronis, you don't take notice in there is many link backing to Acronis. com, there more it's reported. the happier they are~~~