In recent years, another approach might be even easier…. Each location then had “offsite” backup at the other. When my wife had a retail store, I had an external drive for backups at her store and another in our home, and would periodically swap the two. That could mean periodically taking an external disk with your backups on it to some other location, or, if the sizes are small enough, backing up across the network to a server not in your home. If the potential data loss just sent a shiver down your spine, you should consider offsite storage for your backups. What if your building, including your machines and all of their backups, was lost in a fire? This does mean you’ll have to set up your local network and enable file sharing on it - something that isn’t always the easiest to accomplish or maintain. Having two machines back each other up is a quick way to ensure that if either has a problem, your data is safe on the other. Many backup programs allow you to back up across a network. Hard disks are so large these days that simply having another machine on your local network with sufficient free space can be a quick and easy solution. You might not have to go out of your way to get additional hardware for backup purposes. Relying on your memory to back up isn’t the best choice. This requires a great deal of diligence on your part, because anything you don’t specify to be backed up will be lost in the case of a catastrophic failure.Įither way, you need to make sure to use a technique - either home-brewed or in the form of a backup or automated copy program - to make sure this happens automatically. If you’re okay with re-installing your system from scratch, meaning your operating system as well as all applications and customizations, and you can clearly identify what does and doesn’t need to be saved, you can save a lot of disk space by backing up only your data. Am I comfortable re-installing my system? (There are both paid and free versions.) Starting with Windows 7 (though apparently being de-emphasized in later versions of Windows 10), the backup program included with Windows appears also worthy of consideration. I personally use and recommend EaseUS Todo for most home users. If, as I recommend, you elect to get backup software, there are many good choices. Unfortunately, while the drive may be good, you don’t always know the quality of the free software included with it. Many external drives come with backup software of some sort that’s sometimes a good place to start. In addition to an external drive, you’ll need a backup program. If this isn’t something you want to spend time learning about - and to be honest, most people don’t - then prepare to spend a little more money for some additional disk space and get a good dedicated backup program. Do I want to put a lot of thought into this? Consider adding online backups of some sort to the mix, and you’ll be well protected. If you’re not sure, get an external drive and a copy of EaseUS Todo, and configure them to take image backups monthly and incremental backups daily. There are many questions to consider, but most important is selecting a backup strategy that will work for you.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |