Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Computer File With Extension BAK

File Extension BAK, also known as backup files, are used by a huge number of applications and processes to create backups of existing data, often as part of an auto-save feature. There is no standard format for these files, as the data within them is often a copy of any kind of data.

It is often possible to safely remove File Extension BAK as they are simply there as a backup of existing data. However, we do not recommend that you remove these files unless you are sure that it is safe to do so. Backups are redundant copies of some data, which are stored in a different location than original. Good backup practice is to use different physical media at a different physical storage location.

Backups are also created before executing complex operations that have high likelihood of failure. If some error occurs it is then possible to restore data to a previous consistent state and retry the opearation again.

BAK files can be opened only by the application that created them. Sometimes BAK file can be just copied over the original file by changing the file extension from BAK to the appropriate one. Such operations should only be executed by skilled professionals since changing file extensions can cause data errors and corruption.