Archive for the ‘Backup’ Category

Backup your computer!

By on May 14th, 2015 in Backup

Do you use a computer? Do you save files to it?  Your pictures, videos, documents… do you only have one copy of them? If so, you need to be backing them up! It’s not a question of “IF” you will lose files, it is “WHEN” will you lose files. Backing up will greatly reduce the odds of you losing your files and thus put your mind at ease.

There are many ways you can lose your files:

  1. Accidental deletion
  2. Overwriting a file
  3. Crashes, corruption, errors
  4. Physical accidents/damage to equipment
  5. Fire, water damage
  6. Theft

The easiest way to avoid losing your computer files to any and all of these situations is to use an online backup service.  An online backup service will keep versions of your files to allow you easily restore to a previous state plus if you lose all of your files either by an accident or theft, you will have all of your files safely stored offsite.

We have used and recommend two online backup services: CrashPlan and BackBlaze.  Both of these services offer online backup at a very inexpensive monthly fee.  CrashPlan is even better that it allows you to backup locally to a hard drive connected to your computer for free as well as backup to a friend’s computer.  CrashPlan and BackBlaze are set it and forget it.  Backing up needs to just happen in the background and be there when you need it.

crashplanbackblaze

My dentist would always say, “Only floss the teeth you want to keep”.  So…

Only backup the files you want to keep!

3-2-1 Backup Philosophy

By on January 31st, 2011 in Backup

Updated: 2014-09-23

Admit it, you have heard you should be backing up your computer files. At some point in your experience with computers, you have probably lost an important document and thought “I should have probably been backing up my files.” There are a lot of reasons you could lose your data: data corruption, accidental deletion, theft, flooding, fire.

You probably thought it’s too much work or maybe you don’t know how to do it.  It’s not “if” you lose your files, it’s “when”. Backing up your files isn’t that tough though and there’s actually an excellent philosophy that you can live by. If you follow this philosophy, you can sleep tight at night knowing you will never lose your data.

It’s called 3-2-1 Backup.

3 copies

You should have three copies of your files. This typically means the copy on your main hard drive, a copy on an external hard drive in your house, and one copy online in the “cloud” or possibly on a hard drive in a safe deposit box or at a friend/relative’s house.

2 different media types

Have your data stored on a hard drive, thumb drive, online, etc.  This prevents different types of hazards.

1 offsite

Use an online backup service like CrashPlan or BackBlaze to automatically backup your files online as you create them. (For photos you could also use a photo sharing site like SmugMug or Flickr to backup your photos as well as share them online.) You could also keep a backup hard drive at your parent’s house (preferably several miles away from your house).

For more information on this backup philosophy and in-depth best practices, please visit dpBestflow.