Data Loss and Backups
Of all the scenarios to befall any computer user, data loss is likely the
worst.
Even temporarily losing access can cause considerable anxiety, particularly if there are time constraints.
Whether the drive has failed, Windows has "gone funny", or your little brother just emptied a litre of CocaCola™ over the laptop, no other issue turns up the anxiety dial quite as much as data loss.
At work, your IT Department will have measures in place to ensure that core data is always accessible, always protected, and, a vital part of that protection element is Backups.
It probably won't surprise you to learn there is a relevant rule. It's called 321.
3 Copies (includes original)
2 Different Media
1 Offsite
In practice, this means the original location as stated, a Backup to USB storage, or another server or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, plus a Backup to The Cloud.
The Cloud backup, as you might imagine, requires secure access to an online storage resource, and we use a product (such as Veeam) to manage both automation and longevity of those backups, required for when someone accidentally overwrites or deletes an important document.
Depending on the storage space available, a copy of backups going back days, weeks or even months is possible, so if a document was deleted or overwritten, and the "guilty party" doesn't say so immediately, there's a fighting chance of recovery up to the time period that space and the backup frequency selected dictates.
Also, that last one, Offsite, invariably comprises part of a company's Disaster Recovery procedures too, for in the event of building loss (along with losing USB/Server/NAS backups).
Obviously, that should never happen at Home, but it's not impossible. Think of Backups as Insurance. Not having any is just not prudent, and can mean the difference between saying "Phew!" or "Phuck!" when faced with data loss.
ProTip: If you insist on having AutoSave enabled on Word/Excel/etc, never open an existing document without immediately doing Save As afterwards and giving it a new name, even if it's "Temp" and saved to Desktop.
"OK. What can I do at Home?"
Firstly, there's literally no reason you can't or shouldn't employ professional methods and tools, following the 321Rule.
For the most part, you simply use your chosen backup software to select a Source to protect, a Target to make the copies to, and a Schedule for the frequency.
Let's start with a USB drive.
Order a 2TB USB drive (example). This should be more than adequate. Smaller ones are available, but I wouldn't recommend below 1TB.
Get Standalone Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows free from HERE.
Veeam, as I've mentioned above, is an industry-wide trusted goto in Backup Softwares.
Get "Macrium Reflect Free" from HERE.
Macrium are also a respected name, with their Reflect product being used globally, daily, most commonly for cloning HDDs to SSDs.
With either product, setup a Full backup of the volumes you want to protect, to the USB, every Sunday at 03:00am, for example.
You can setup Backups for every night if you wish to, but unless you're in the habit of saving over your files, weekly should suffice for most people.
One of the benefits of using one of these volume backups is that if you ever get hit by Malware/Virus/Ransomware, you can restore your machine to a known good condition, "just as it was last week", assuming you notice before the next Backup.
If you have either a outlook.com (formerly hotmail.com) or a gmail.com address, then you already have secure access to a cloud storage facility … OneDrive or GoogleDrive/GDrive.
To protect your school/college work, your documents, your images, music and movie files, simply point (redirect) your Documents, Music (even Desktop) and similar Folders to similarly-named ones in your local OneDrive/GDrive folder group.
Even temporarily losing access can cause considerable anxiety, particularly if there are time constraints.
Whether the drive has failed, Windows has "gone funny", or your little brother just emptied a litre of CocaCola™ over the laptop, no other issue turns up the anxiety dial quite as much as data loss.
At work, your IT Department will have measures in place to ensure that core data is always accessible, always protected, and, a vital part of that protection element is Backups.
It probably won't surprise you to learn there is a relevant rule. It's called 321.
3 Copies (includes original)
2 Different Media
1 Offsite
In practice, this means the original location as stated, a Backup to USB storage, or another server or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, plus a Backup to The Cloud.
The Cloud backup, as you might imagine, requires secure access to an online storage resource, and we use a product (such as Veeam) to manage both automation and longevity of those backups, required for when someone accidentally overwrites or deletes an important document.
Depending on the storage space available, a copy of backups going back days, weeks or even months is possible, so if a document was deleted or overwritten, and the "guilty party" doesn't say so immediately, there's a fighting chance of recovery up to the time period that space and the backup frequency selected dictates.
Also, that last one, Offsite, invariably comprises part of a company's Disaster Recovery procedures too, for in the event of building loss (along with losing USB/Server/NAS backups).
Obviously, that should never happen at Home, but it's not impossible. Think of Backups as Insurance. Not having any is just not prudent, and can mean the difference between saying "Phew!" or "Phuck!" when faced with data loss.
ProTip: If you insist on having AutoSave enabled on Word/Excel/etc, never open an existing document without immediately doing Save As afterwards and giving it a new name, even if it's "Temp" and saved to Desktop.
"OK. What can I do at Home?"
Firstly, there's literally no reason you can't or shouldn't employ professional methods and tools, following the 321Rule.
For the most part, you simply use your chosen backup software to select a Source to protect, a Target to make the copies to, and a Schedule for the frequency.
Let's start with a USB drive.
Order a 2TB USB drive (example). This should be more than adequate. Smaller ones are available, but I wouldn't recommend below 1TB.
Get Standalone Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows free from HERE.
Veeam, as I've mentioned above, is an industry-wide trusted goto in Backup Softwares.
To download, you will be required to Register (email address &
password only), but worry not, they don't share the information, it's purely for
support, and they don't bother you with periodical newsletters and so forth.
or
or
Get "Macrium Reflect Free" from HERE.
Macrium are also a respected name, with their Reflect product being used globally, daily, most commonly for cloning HDDs to SSDs.
With either product, setup a Full backup of the volumes you want to protect, to the USB, every Sunday at 03:00am, for example.
You can setup Backups for every night if you wish to, but unless you're in the habit of saving over your files, weekly should suffice for most people.
One of the benefits of using one of these volume backups is that if you ever get hit by Malware/Virus/Ransomware, you can restore your machine to a known good condition, "just as it was last week", assuming you notice before the next Backup.
In fact, you can even drill into those volume backups from another machine to cherry-pick urgent documents, for example.
What about Cloud?
Do you have a Microsoft or Google email account?
What about Cloud?
Do you have a Microsoft or Google email account?
If you have either a outlook.com (formerly hotmail.com) or a gmail.com address, then you already have secure access to a cloud storage facility … OneDrive or GoogleDrive/GDrive.
To protect your school/college work, your documents, your images, music and movie files, simply point (redirect) your Documents, Music (even Desktop) and similar Folders to similarly-named ones in your local OneDrive/GDrive folder group.
Note that you can redirect the location of your Documents folder group to largely anywhere you have access, such a second hard drive/SSD you may have fitted.
Relocate any and all personal stuff from elsewhere to folders under this Documents folder group,
so that every time you save an item here, it gets sync'd straight to
OneDrive/GDrive (you must have installed and be logged-in to the relevant App, of
course).
Even if you had to build a new PC from scratch, this way, you can have your stuff very quickly afterwards, simply login to OneDrive and let it sync down to your PC, then re-point Document folders...Presto!...you're Desktop and everything else just returns, as it was.
Caveat Emptor : Bear in mind that when using Veeam or Macrium to restore whole volumes to a new a machine or drive, the new drive's volume size must be equal or be greater than those you are restoring...it would be prudent to take note of such things, perhaps stored in a simple TXT file now sync'd to OneDrive?
Even if you had to build a new PC from scratch, this way, you can have your stuff very quickly afterwards, simply login to OneDrive and let it sync down to your PC, then re-point Document folders...Presto!...you're Desktop and everything else just returns, as it was.
Caveat Emptor : Bear in mind that when using Veeam or Macrium to restore whole volumes to a new a machine or drive, the new drive's volume size must be equal or be greater than those you are restoring...it would be prudent to take note of such things, perhaps stored in a simple TXT file now sync'd to OneDrive?
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