Photo by Andrew Neel:
Backing up is a key part of fundamental information technology knowledge. Without a backup, digitally stored data is as good as gone, for, if it is lost once, there is no going back. For some, a lack of backing up means the loss of sensitive data, financial data, or even government secrets.
Furthermore, it is surprising that millions of people and many, many organizations still do not practice the art of backing up their data for the simple reason that they don’t believe data loss will ever happen to them.
The truth is that everyone will lose some data at some point whether that is because of human error or an external event not under their control. Not having a proper backup is like not putting on your seatbelt while inside a car, or losing your paper phonebook with all of your contacts (or losing a private journal where you keep your notes over the years).
After a data loss event, putting back lost data can be painful and most probably impossible. For all of these reasons, you need the best backup software for your devices. However, before we get into the main topic, it is important to understand what backing up is, what backups do and why this is essential in our lives.
Fortunately, more people are aware of the importance of backups in our day and age. Furthermore, technological and internet advancements have allowed fantastic premium backup software that does all the work for you to be available for a small subscription fee.
What Is a Backup?
The word “backup” is quite self-explanatory. It can be described as “storing” an extra copy of an item or, in this case, your digital data, in either an offline backup or an online backup. Of course, you can create multiple backups of the same data. Do you know why most people carry a spare key with them? Because this is the “backup” key, an essential item.
All operating systems nowadays allow us to make backups. Whether this is Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, or otherwise. Backups are an essential part of any operating system. On modern-day smartphones and laptops, for instance, you can back up your data directly to the cloud via the internet, which saves you disk space and time. The “cloud” is an online, off-site database managed by a company that offers cloud computing services.
Of course, you can opt to make an “offline” backup which is recommended anyway by cybersecurity specialists worldwide. More on that later, though.
Other times, it is probably the best idea to use a dedicated backup program. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of data to store and don’t have the time for it, or when you are not too familiar with properly backing up data. A backup program can save you and do the work for you in these situations.
The same goes for software such as antimalware, antivirus, password management, and the like. Thanks to advanced operating systems, high-speed internet, and powerful computer chips, we can have all of this on our devices today (sometimes even for free).
Why Backups Matter
So, Imagine for a moment if a large organization like Microsoft that caters to billions of people (i.e retains their account information as well as confidential organizational software source code) lost its data.
A lot of systems in the world would stop functioning. Perhaps an even better example is an airline company. Imagine being an airline that lost its customer data, technical data, and financial data without the ability to recover it.
The company would likely be out of business the next day. Large organizations tend to be better covered with multiple backups and heavy-duty security, but that is not always necessarily the case.
If we come back to the topic of offline backups, which is crucial but often overlooked, remember that when you store your data online and entrust a company to take care of it on its servers (the cloud), you might lose that data if the company experiences a breach or system failure.
This is why it is important to have an offline backup of all of your data. What does this mean? This means saving data on something like an external disc that does not connect to the internet, serving only as a sort of library of files. This way, an internet incident cannot corrupt your data in any way.
Then again, since you want to be as sure as possible that your data is secure, why not go both ways? Upload a backup of your Windows, macOS, iOS, or any other operating systems’ data to the cloud plus go for an offline backup as well.
For instance, in Windows 10, you have all the necessary features to do a healthy, smart backup. Take a look at the link at the beginning of this article to see how to properly back up your Windows system.
Let’s examine the numerous ways in which you can build a Windows 10 backup before moving on to the backup procedure.
OneDrive: If you want to back up your Windows 10 desktop, images, and documents, Microsoft’s OneDrive is a fantastic way to do it.
File History: Windows 10 now has a feature called File History. Users are given the option to regularly back up their files to an external storage device.
Backup and Restore: This is Windows’ first backup program. You can build a “system image backup” using “Backup and Restore,” which contains everything of your installed programs, settings, and applications (in addition to all files and folders).
Third-Party Backup: Several businesses have released software that makes generating backups on Windows 10 even easier.
If you prefer a third-party backup option, you can opt for the well-known Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office. It allows you to have 500GB to 1TB of cloud space, depending on which premium package you purchase.
You also receive flexible backups, disc cloning, ransomware protection, even blockchain certification of files, and much more. Take a look at the link at the beginning of this article for all the details!