A brief overview of the process of creating regular backups of your data.
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Creating a backup is easy. Honestly. The basic principle is that a copy of the data should be taken from your computer, stored on some other medium, then kept in a safe place. Like photocopying an important document in case the original gets damaged, so you’re taking a carbon copy of the data stored on your computer. There are many, many methods by with which you can perform a successful backup - these will be introduced in a later article - but choosing which one to employ requires a little bit of thought.
Choosing the best method by which to backup your data depends greatly on, amongst others, these factors:
- How much data do you wish to backup?
- How often does your data change (and hence how often do you need to make backups)?
Looking at these in order:
How much data do you wish to backup?
Small amounts of data can easily be stored online. There are many sites on the internet that will allow you - often for free - to transfer your data to their servers. Unfortunately the transfer of data to the service’s servers may prove a bridge to far for those of us with more data or less patience. Read more about backing up data online on our sister site, Perfect Backups.
Sites to consider are: Mozy and iDrive.
Purchasing an external hard drive, on the other hand, may be overkill for those with only one or two vital documents to protect.
How often does your data change?
If you use your computer only occasionally, or you rarely place on it any data that you wish to keep, then there is very little point in creating a fresh backup every night. If, on the other hand, you are constantly using your computer to run a business or for keeping records for a local club (for example), then your activity may warrant daily or twice-daily backups. It might be useful to consider how important the data is to you. Ask yourself: ‘can I live without the information that changed or entered onto the computer today’. If the answer is ‘no’, then it’s time for a new backup. There is no set rule to this, and you must judge for yourself how frequently you will perform the process.
Before you dive into the process of performing regular backups, you need to decide what is the best way to go about it. Setting off on the wrong foot will be wasted effort at best, and damaging to your computer and data at worst.
For further discussion on the backup process, see the other articles in our Data Backup category. You may also like to visit our sister site Perfect Backups for a comprehensive assessment of the backup process, including comprehensive guides on creating the perfect backup [coming soon…]. We are add more articles on a regular basis, so be sure to check back soon.
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