Best Backup Strategies for Consumers
Consumer Backup: Each of us face data loss at some point in our lives. What if you lose a large amount of important data tomorrow as a result of a hard drive failure, ransomware attack, or a software bug that could delete your important files? If you’re not backing up your computer frequently, you could lose your files forever. In case you lose them, or if you already know the drill, you know any kind of data built or altered since the time of your previous backup is gone in a blink.
Backups are not as difficult and daunting as it seems to be. You just need to get started with your basics: what do you need to back up?
For starters, you need to back up your personal files like pictures, videos, and any other information on your computer, frequently. That means you can re-install your operating system and re-download your programs if your hard drive fails. Your OS, programs, other settings can also be backed up. It’s not necessary that you have to back it up, but it can make your life easier if your entire hard drive fails.
There are countless consumer data backup best practices, but we have curated four effective hand-picked strategies for consumers who wish to protect their personal data.
Increase the Frequency of Your Backups:
The most common mistake that consumers make is failing to backup their data regularly. As such, you should create backs ups of your system frequently if you want to avoid substantial losses. The question is, how frequently should you back up your data?
The best frequency you should aim for is the one that is ongoing. Various backup solutions that offer local and cloud-based backups. This helps to track your system on a real-time basis, and carry out uninterrupted backups of data, even if your data is modified.
But sometimes, in reality, a mobile-worker might not be able to back up the data while using his/her tablet while in a meeting, so that would have to wait until the time during which the tablet is not put to use through conventional methods. So, if you are continually creating or altering large amounts of critical data, at that point you probably need your backups to be more real-time.
Test Your Backups and Restores:
The second strategy on our list of best practices is to test your backups. This will ensure that you can restore your data when required. For instance, you might restore information to a virtual machine or even to your old PC in order to check if things are functioning the way it should. Though the data gets backed up successfully, there is no assurance that information backed up is not corrupt or it can be recovered in its entirety.
There have been circumstances when someone created an image backup that was enough for restoring the system, but it created problems not allowing for the recovery of individual files or folders. Similarly, a file-level backup might not permit you for the recovery of the Operating System or applications.
Backup Solutions have created new backup processes that limit these dangers. Testing your personal data backups is the most effective and efficient way to ensure that you are protected against a disaster. This will give you the guarantee that your backup will be available and usable when you need it.
Back up Your Personal Data with 3-2-1 Strategy:
There is no such thing as a perfect backup system, but the 3-2-1 backup plan is a great start for the majority of consumers to back up their personal data. Follow a simple rule and create 3 copies on 2 different types of media, 1 of which is in a remote location. We have carefully designed a simple strategy that will help you follow the 3-2-1 rule:
- Make a system recovery of your primary computer. This will recover your OS, application, and other information after a hard drive failure. You might not refresh this back up as regularly, so you would want to use a DVD ROM media. In case you find DVD ROM backups tedious, you might want to use an external hard drive instead.
- Utilise an application and an external drive to back up your file system. This will help you recover individual files as and when you need it. Your first backup will be a full backup of all your data. In due course, your backups will be incremental. This may take a while. However, using a backup application and external drive to back up your file systems will make your personal backups ridiculously simple.
Pro Tip: If you choose to make use of an external drive in step one, use a different drive in step 2. - Make duplicates of all your important data in another location, like a cloud storage service, or an external drive that will be stored in a safe remote location.
Regardless of the quantity of data you want to back up, the 3-2-1 backup is a good thumb rule to pursue. It increases the dependability of your backups. Although following a 3-2-1 backup rule can be complicated and costly if it requires you to set up and use multiple tools, there are various personal backup solutions that would help you in making this easy and cost-effective.
Automate Your Consumer Backup:
The more you have your backup system automated, the more frequently you’ll be able to create backups. Even better, there are higher odds you’ll stick with it. An automated tool can help you execute this effortlessly instead of copying files to an external hard drive manually. Once you set it up, you’re sorted, you don’t have to bother about it anymore.
There are online services that can automatically do this for you every single day. It helps you save the time that you would be investing in plugging in an external drive, this also means you’ll be creating fewer backups and you may subsequently stop doing it.
However, if you’re looking for a no-cost option, consider utilizing file-syncing services like Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox to synchronize all your important files online. This way, if you ever lose your data, you’ll at least have an online copy. Most cloud services only offer a few gigabytes of space without charging you, so this only works if you have a small number of files you want to back up, or if you’re willing to pay for extra storage. Depending on the files you want to back up, this method can either be simpler or more complicated as opposed to a straight-up online backup program that would protect you against any type of hard drive failure, natural disasters, and everything in between.
Maintain an Air Gap Backup:
Having an "air gap" backup means that you maintain one copy of your data offline. This copy needs to be disconnected from your network and the internet.
By doing this, you help avoid having your backed-up data corrupted or maliciously targeted by ransomware-type attacks.
The air-gap strategy goes hand-in-hand with the 3-2-1 backup schema. The "1" copy should be air-gapped.
What Should You Do Next?
Backing up your PC is one of the single most important things you can do to ensure the safety and security of your files. Ultimately when you have established your strategy, execute and test how well the strategy is performing, and check if it’s in line with your needs. Many consumers have encountered bottlenecks because they assumed that their strategy was viable or worst, have not had a backup strategy at all, and lost crippling amounts of data as a result.
If you’re wondering where you’ll acquire the expertise, and the time to configure effective backup plans, our experts at Rebit can relieve you of those burdens. Whether a virus, malware, mistake, fire, or theft, you’ll be protected with Rebit. No more scheduling data backups. And no manual steps. When it comes to recovering your computer, we kept it simple too. You can restore a single file or recover your entire PC. Rebit’s data backup and recovery function with historical snapshots is just a click away. To cater to all your personal backup needs, Rebit handles your backup in an automated manner. You may also be able to restore past versions of backed up files, which is helpful in case a file was inadvertently changed. Once restore is complete, your computer will be back to its original state. It’s powerful, yet simple.
See how Rebit can safeguard your personal data — and simplify your life — with our risk-free 30-day free trial at Rebitgo.com. The best part? It only takes 10 minutes to get up and running.
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