Got Backups?

As we welcome the holidays and the year is winding down, we often see family and friends and for those of us that do anything to do with technology are forever getting caught up in the quagmire that is desktop support. No matter what your level of technical discipline you will still help out that family friend or that favorite uncle that has always been around to help if you needed it.

While my Windows desktop skills are rusty, the one thing I do make sure to ask is “Got Backups?”

I admit I harp on backups for completely self-serving purposes since when a hardware failure happens I seem to be sucked in. While replacing a bad hard disk is easy, it is heartbreaking to tell them their data is a loss and all those pictures they have been “backing up” to their laptop from their camera.

First, context is king lets get on the same page on what we are talking about here.

Backup - A copy of your data in more than one place. Insulating you from Fire, Flood, Hardware Failure and human error. Other keywords used for this kind of storage are redundant, resilient, Off-Site and DR (Disaster Recovery).

One note on “Human Error”, I am referring to “oops” events like deleting the wrong directory and immediately being able to get the data back. If you purposely delete data that you want to keep just not at your fingertips that is not a backup.

One common option is the obligatory USB hard disk. If you store it in a fireproof safe and are diligent about doing it regularly it is likely this is a good option. There is a very big IF there though.

In my opinion, given the audience we are talking about the best backup solution is one you do not think about. Once set up it just runs as things change.

Since most homes now have some sort of always-on internet service a cloud-based backup is in my opinion best for that use case. Yes, it costs money but the costs are very inexpensive. If the data is important it is well worth it.

Hope you all have a safe and prosperous 2018

Also Posted on LinkedIn