Sentence Correction

The best way for an IT professional to protect data is to periodically back it in a preformatted
disc.
A. to periodically back it in a pre-formatted disc
B. if it is quickly backed in a pre-formatted disc
C. for it to be backed periodically in a pre-formatted disc
D. if the data is periodically backed in a pre-formatted disc
E. to have them periodically backed in a pre-formatted disc

IMO A,

B, D unnecessary use of if,
C, passive
E, them is for plural not for singular data

A for me too.

C came pretty close.

I also selected A but OA is E..
OE says that singular pronoun "it" can not refer to "Data"

ketkoag wrote:The best way for an IT professional to protect data is to periodically back it in a preformatted
disc.
A. to periodically back it in a pre-formatted disc
B. if it is quickly backed in a pre-formatted disc
C. for it to be backed periodically in a pre-formatted disc
D. if the data is periodically backed in a pre-formatted disc
E. to have them periodically backed in a pre-formatted disc

how can them refer to data? there is no plural antecedent. I think the answer should be A

ketkoag wrote:The best way for an IT professional to protect data is to periodically back it in a preformatted
disc.
A. to periodically back it in a pre-formatted disc
B. if it is quickly backed in a pre-formatted disc
C. for it to be backed periodically in a pre-formatted disc
D. if the data is periodically backed in a pre-formatted disc
E. to have them periodically backed in a pre-formatted disc

Few words like DATA, PEOPLE etc. are plural words. So, for those words we should use plural referrals.

A,B and C are out.

D is redundant.

E uses THEM correctly to refer DATA.

Data is plural form of DATUM(which is rarely used today)

ankit1383 wrote:Data is plural form of DATUM(which is rarely used today)

That was useful .. Thanks