How Important is Your Data?
There is always a possibility of losing important files. Hardware can fail, files can be accidentally deleted or otherwise lost. The only sure way to entirely prevent the permanent loss of files is to have some sort of backup. Typically, backups are either stored on a specific hard drive on site, or are uploaded to the cloud.
Online or Local Backup?
The main deciding factor between cloud and on site backups is in the time it takes to recover the data. If something happens to your files and need to restore an image based backup from the cloud, the service provider will usually ship a hard drive to your location that already contains all the backup data, which can take a few days to arrive. If you have a image based backup on a hard drive on site, there is zero delay between the computer losing data and when you can start the restoring process.
Given these limitations, if you want to backup specific files it’s generally simpler to upload the backups to the cloud. If you need to backup all data on a machine, an external hard drive is usually the best option.
Choosing What to Backup
When setting up your backup software to run, you’ll have to pick what type of backup to perform, and when. The first decision will be whether you want to backup specific files, all data on the machine, or an image of the hard drive. This choice depends on space available for backups, and whether programs and settings on the machine are important to preserve.
Choosing specific files to backup takes the least amount of space, and backing up all the files takes about as much space as an image of the data. Specific file backups are easy to look through to find particular files that need to be restored. Full backups are more difficult to manage, and take up much more space. They also might contain files you don’t necessarily need backed up. Image backups are great for when a machine completely breaks because the image can be transferred to a new hard drive or machine. All of the functionality and data will be just as it was before the incident.
Full or Incremental?
Next you’ll have to decide whether you want your software to backup the changes that made between full backups. A full backup requires more time and can slow down the computer, so typically a full backup is done weekly. A differential or incremental backup should be done every day. This saves space and gives more options for restoring a system to a state of a specific point in time. Differential or incremental backups can be applied in the restoring process and function exactly as if full backup was done that day.
When to Backup?
The right time to do these backups will depend on your work habits. If you leave your computer on overnight, the best time to perform backups is after using the computer for the day. If you turn off your computer when leaving, pick a time when you’ll regularly do less computer work. The worst thing that could happen would be data loss in a system crash because there is no backup.
