You must have a solid computer backup strategy. Why? Well, you know that dread feeling you get deep in the pit of your stomach sometimes? Like when you realise the mother-in-law is knocking at your door, you’re sitting there in your boxers, a beer in hand, watching the tennis final, and you’ve forgotten she was coming over for dinner – Doh! Or, when your boss declares, ‘It has to be you to present that make or break sales pitch’ – in front of all your peers and to the stone-faced prospect with a slick team of sales sharks swarming around him. Or perhaps when the outro music of the final GOT fades, the screen goes black and you’re gripped with panic and a deep sense of loss.
‘Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?’
Joni Mitchell
Well folks, these examples don’t really come close to the blood-freezing realisation that your hard drive has failed and you haven’t got a proper backup. So, let’s have a look at the best ways you can avoid the horror of catastrophic data lose and implement an effective backup regime.
Different kinds of computer backup – think outside the box
There are lots of ways to backup your system. It’s a process that’s been evolving rapidly. The most basic backup is a manual backup to an external drive. Unfortunately, this relies on remembering to do so. It’s also only useful assuming the unexpected doesn’t happen. Such as; sudden hard drive failure, a virus attack, or even accidental deletion. Furthermore, this means that your precious copy is still vulnerable to theft or damage by fire or flood. Essentially, a good computer backup system is one you can forget about and is both local and at a different location.
In addition, it’s a good idea to use an incremental back up. This creates an almost real-time copy. This should be happening simultaneously to a local backup server and to a cloud-based server. Cloud-based simply means that it’s another server at a different location that’s connected via an encrypted internet connection.
