It’s March 31st which means World Reserve Day. This day is celebrated worldwide as a way to create awareness among users to back up their data regularly. It’s a reminder that no matter how advanced technology gets, there’s always a chance of failure and that’s when a backup comes in handy.
The Unfortunate Thing About World Reserve Day
It’s very bad that most business owners learn the importance of file backups the hard way. Losing data, though, is rare and often has nothing to do but regret it. However, if you are one of the lucky ones who have never lost data, then we might advise you to continue the streak. This World Backup Day, promise yourself that you will back up your data.
Ideally, we would recommend users follow rules 3,2,1,0. Rule 3,2,1,0 states that a person must take three backups of their data in two different formats, one of which must be an off-site backup and there must be no errors in your backup system. This means that the user has to take three backups, two of which have to be in different formats one can be a hard drive and the other can be a DVD or cloud storage and one backup has to always be kept off-site.
The Reason One Should Keep Two Different Formats
You need to keep two formats of your files to prevent data loss and different formats have different strengths and weaknesses in terms of redundancy. Keeping a single copy off-site usually prevents data loss due to things the user has no control over such as fire or flood.
Because of this, we’re pretty sure that people don’t always follow the rules completely, but we strongly recommend saving data in two different formats, one of which has to be off-site. Now you probably have a lot of questions related to backups, so we’ve decided to list the important things to consider when doing a backup.
- Where to start
- Flash Drives and Physical Storage
- cloud storage
- Backup and Encryption Software
Where To Start
This is probably the biggest and most important question for anyone who decides to take backup. Today, we have many options like SSD, Hard Drive, NAS, USB, and cloud. The rule of thumb when taking a backup is to decide whether or not the data is important and the best way to do this is to think about whether you can download it back from the internet. If there is something that you cannot download from the internet, then you should take a backup. Once you have identified the data that needs to be backed up, you need to decide what format to use. Different formats have different use cases and different drawbacks.
You should choose a format based on how often you need to access the data and how important the data itself is. We’ve prepared a list of widely used formats to help you decide. Today, data backup can be separated into two broad categories – Flash Drives/Physical storage and Cloud storage options.
Flash Drives and Physical Storage
Flash Drive here includes all physical drives like USB, NAS, Hard Drive, SSD, and even CD/DVD. The biggest advantage of using these is access as they are always with you and do not require the internet to access data. The problem with these is if you lose them or drop them in water they die and so does your data.
However, it is the most commonly used piece of hardware for taking backups and recently companies have started bundling backup software with Hard Drives allowing users to take backups easily. Microsoft has bundled a similar tool with Windows 7 and has added a backup option inside Windows 10 as well. You can go to Settings > Update and Security > Backup and select a backup drive where data from your main drive can be backed up. You can use the “More options” option to recover data from the backup drive if your primary drive fails or crashes.
Another easy but expensive way to set up backups is to use a NAS. NAS stands for Network Attached Storage and allows users to create dedicated servers that can be connected to their local network and can be accessed using all devices on the network. Software such as Acronis backup allows users to back up their devices on a NAS which they can access in the event of a disaster. Talking about the software, Acronis Backup is currently available with a fixed 50% discount to promote healthy backup habits among users.
Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage is currently one of the best ways to secure data and also doesn’t cost too much. This allows users to back up their data off-site which can be easily accessed from anywhere on the planet. While Cloud Storage has the advantage of being separate from users and therefore less vulnerable to disasters, it does require a good internet connection to access data.
Cloud Storage is offered by many companies and the popular ones include Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, and Google Drive. It supports almost all major platforms and works even across platforms. Uploading data on Cloud Storage is probably the best way to secure it long-term. Microsoft bundled OneDrive with Windows 10 which is a great way to sync and back up data on the go.
We strongly recommend that users put important documents and other important data into a OneDrive folder so they can be automatically backed up. However, Cloud Storage is also not completely future-proof as the system does fail. This may be rare for big companies like Google and Microsoft but it does happen. So we do not recommend that you use Cloud Storage as the main backup for the very important data you have or data that you need to access regularly.
Backup and Encryption Software
You can never be too careful and that’s why there is software at salesforce back up that will help you if you forget to make a backup or lose all your backup copies. Currently, AOMEI also offers their backup software called AOMEI Backupper Professional Edition for free. You can download the software and it comes with a license key to activate it. This offer is valid until April and posts that the license key is not valid so make sure you activate your license before then.
One last thing before we close is the importance of using encryption. While taking backups is important, encrypting data is even more important so it is important that you use good encryption software to protect your data. Microsoft’s BitLocker is an excellent encryption software offered by Microsoft for free. You can access BitLocker by going to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Encrypt BitLocker Drive and turning on BitLocker for the drive you want to encrypt. Note that encryption will take time and your drive may become inaccessible during the encryption process.
While it’s impossible to cover everything in one article, we have tried to highlight good practices for keeping your data safe. We encourage everyone to understand the importance of taking backups and start taking backups. One thing everyone needs to remember is that systems fail, and accidents happen, so you can’t be 100% sure that your data is safe.
What you can do is run regular checks on your device and make sure it is error-free and has multiple copies of your data. This World Backup Day, take a step forward and make sure your data is always safe. We hope this article will help you take better care of your data and ensure that your valuable data is always safe.