What Is The Best Way To Back Up My Computer?

What's the Best Way to Back Up My Computer?

At some point in their lives, everyone loses data. Tomorrow, your computer's hard drive could fail, ransomware could encrypt your files, or a software bug could delete critical files. If you do not back up your computer on a regular basis, you risk losing those files for good.

Backups, on the other hand, do not have to be difficult or perplexing. You've probably heard of a plethora of different backup strategies, but which one is right for you? And which files are truly necessary to backup?

 

It’s All About Your Personal Data

To begin, let us address the obvious: why do you require backup? To begin, you should create a backup of your personal files. If your hard drive fails, you can always reinstall your operating system and redownload your programs, but your personal data is irreplaceable.

Backup all personal documents, photos, home videos, and other data on your computer on a regular basis. Those are irreplaceable. If you've spent hours painstakingly ripping audio CDs or video DVDs, you may wish to backup those files as well, so you don't have to repeat the process.

Additionally, you can back up your operating system, programs, and other settings. You are not required to backup them, but it can make life easier if your entire hard drive fails. If you're the type of person who likes to fiddle with system files, edit the registry, and keep your hardware up to date on a regular basis, having a full system backup may save you time when something goes wrong.

 

The Many Ways to Back Up Your Files

There are numerous methods for backing up your data, ranging from using an external drive to storing them on a remote server via the Internet. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of each:

• Back Up to an External Drive: If you have an external USB hard drive, you can simply use your computer's built-in backup features to back up to that drive. Utilize File History on Windows 10 and 8. Utilize Windows Backup on Windows 7. Utilize Time Machine on Macs. Connect the drive to the computer on a periodic basis and use the backup tool, or leave it plugged in whenever you're at home and it will backup automatically. Pros: Backing up is inexpensive and quick. Cons: If your home is robbed or burns down, your backup may be lost along with your computer, which is extremely inconvenient.
• Online Backup: If you want to ensure the safety of your files, you can use a service like Backblaze to back them up to the internet. Backblaze is a well-known online backup service that we like and recommend in the absence of CrashPlan for home users (although you could pay for a CrashPlan small business account instead.) Additionally, there are competitors such as Carbonite—we previously mentioned MozyHome, but it is now a part of Carbonite. For a small monthly fee (approximately $5), these programs run in the background on your PC or Mac, automatically backing up your files to the service's cloud storage. You can restore those files if you ever lose them and require them again. Pros: Online backup safeguards your data against all types of loss, including hard drive failure, theft, natural disasters, and everything in between. Cons: These services are typically fee-based (for more information, see the following section), and the initial backup can take significantly longer than it would on an external drive–especially if you have a large number of files.
• Use a Cloud Storage Service: While purists will argue that this is not technically a backup method, it serves a similar purpose for the majority of people. Rather than storing your files on your computer's hard drive, you can upload them to a cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or another similar service. They'll then sync automatically with your online account and other computers. If your hard drive fails, you will still have backups of your files online and on other computers. Pros: This method is simple, quick, and, in many cases, free, and it protects you against all types of data loss due to its online nature. Cons: Because most cloud services offer only a few gigabytes of free storage, this option is only viable if you have a small number of files to backup or are willing to pay for additional storage. This method may be simpler or more complicated than a straight-up backup program, depending on the files you want to back up.

While both backup programs such as Backblaze and cloud storage services such as Dropbox offer online backup, their operations are fundamentally different. Dropbox is intended to sync files between computers, whereas Backblaze and similar services are intended to backup large volumes of data. Backblaze will maintain multiple copies of your files at various points in their history, allowing you to restore the file exactly as it was at any point in time. And, unlike Dropbox, which is free for small amounts of storage, Backblaze's low price includes unlimited storage. Depending on the amount of data you have, one may be less expensive than the other.

Backblaze and Carbonite both have a significant limitation that you should be aware of. After 30 days, if you delete a file from your computer, it will be deleted from your online backups. After this 30-day period, you cannot recover a deleted file or a previous version of a file. Therefore, exercise caution when deleting files that you may wish to recover!

 

One Backup Is Insufficient: Utilize Multiple Methods

Which one should you choose? You should ideally use at least two of them. Why? Due to the fact that you require both offsite and onsite backups.

The term "onsite" refers to backups that are physically stored in the same location as you. Therefore, if you backup to an external hard drive and store it at home alongside your home computer, this is considered an onsite backup.

Offsite backups are kept in a separate location. Thus, backing up to an online server such as Backblaze or Dropbox constitutes an offsite backup.

Onsite backups are more convenient and faster, and should be used as the first line of defense against data loss. If you accidentally delete files, you can quickly recover them using an external hard drive. However, you should not rely solely on onsite backups. If your home burns to the ground or all of the hardware inside is stolen, you will lose all of your files.

Offsite backups do not have to be hosted on an Internet server, nor do they require a monthly subscription fee. You could, for instance, back up your files to a hard drive and store it at your office, a friend's house, or a bank vault. While this would be slightly more inconvenient, it is technically an offsite backup.

Similarly, you can store your files in Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive while regularly backing them up to an external drive. Alternatively, you could backup online using Backblaze and create a local backup using Windows File History. There are numerous ways to combine these services, and the method you choose is entirely up to you. Simply ensure that you have a robust backup strategy in place, including both onsite and offsite backups, to ensure that you have a wide safety net in case you ever lose your files.

 

Make It Automated!

All of this may seem complicated, but the more automated your backup system is, the more frequently you can back up and the more likely you will stick to it. That is why, rather than manually copying files to an external drive, you should use an automated tool. You can simply configure it once and forget about it.

That is one of the reasons we appreciate online services such as Backblaze. If it's backed up to the internet, it can do so automatically every day. If you're required to connect an external drive, you'll have to exert more effort, which means you'll backup less frequently and may eventually stop. Maintaining complete automation is well worth the cost.

If you're not interested in paying anything and prefer to rely on local backups exclusively, consider using a file-syncing service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive to synchronize your critical files online. That way, if your local backup is ever lost, you'll still have an online copy.

 

Conclusion

Finally, you simply need to consider the location of your files and maintain multiple copies at all times. In an ideal world, those copies would be stored in multiple physical locations. As long as you're considering what you'll do if your computer dies, you should be well ahead of the majority of people.