How to backup files? We will find millions of hardware, software and online solutions for it. Unfortunately these solutions do not meet our requirements. You need to identify your requirements before you start looking for ways to backup. Here are the questions you can ask yourself.
1. What to Backup?
2. Where to Backup?
3. When to Backup?
4. How to Backup?
How to backup you files is the last questions you need to answer.
What to Backup?
Backing up all your files in the computer and external hard drives is time consuming as well as going to cost you lot. Trying to backup each and every thing is the first reason why it fails to do regular automated backups.
You need to select the files that you cannot live without them. It depends on person to person and no one can help you with it. So take time go through your files and folders and decide what is important and what files change update regularly. Managing folder structure base on the importance of files or base on the project can come in handy in this task. You can easily specify the what folder to backup and what not to.
For example you can easily skip video files, mp3s and thousands of picture you download from Internet. Even you lost them still you can manage to recover them with time or even without them it will not make much difference to your day to life.
Where to backup?
After you identifying what files to be backup now you can move to the next question. That is Where you going to back these files?
Now you have a idea about the total size of files and frequency of updating these files and importance of the files. You can decide what type of media you can/should select to backup.
If the data you going to back up is worth millions you can easily spend couple of thousands for backing up. If it is just regular files that you use then you should not spend a lot. Here are some options that you can use to backup files.
1. Different Partition - Good for quicker access but your backup is not secure at all
2. External Hard Drive - Better and good for regular backups faster.
3 Network Storage - Better if you need couple of machine to be backed up regularly.
4. Cd's/DVDs - Cheap and good for one time backups - not good for regular backups.
5. Online Storage / FTP accounts - Your back up is secure if something happened to the current location.
There can be many more options and these are only couple of them to have a idea. It is always to have one or more local backups and at least one backup in another location (FTP).
When to Backup?
This is another important question you should answer before starting or backing up your files. Answer to this question basically is the answer to backup scheduling.
Couple of good options are...
1. Daily
2. Weekly
3. Monthly
4. Yearly
Basically you might have to go with each of these options with your regularly updating files. Main reason for that it in any case you have accidentally delete or change any files you can always go one day backwards and retrieve it. Also you will have week old files and month old files as well.
However, if you are backing up data in frequently updating environment where couple of users involved you might have to keep daily backups for at least for seven days. That require space accordingly.
Another important fact is at what time you are planning to take the backups. Backing up process may take the computer resources will result your machine to run bit slower than usual. It totally depend on the software you use. If the files are in use it might not properly backed up as some programs lock some files.
How to Backup?
Final question. Here we will analyse our answers to all the above three question and come to a conclusion. This is the time you will make decision how much you going to spend base on couple of calculations you do.
Final question. Here we will analyse our answers to all the above three question and come to a conclusion. This is the time you will make decision how much you going to spend base on couple of calculations you do.
1. Find enough Storage for the backups.
At least 5 times bigger than the total size of the files you have to backup.
At least 5 times bigger than the total size of the files you have to backup.
2. Find proper storage devices base on your budget and requirements.
External Hard drive, NAS (Network Storage, Online Storage with FTP access or can you manage with CD's or DVDs.
3.Find the Best Software that suite your requirements (Freeware or Shareware)
Summery
1.Find out what files to be backup. Reduce what you backup regularly.
2.Find out how important your files are.
3.Find out how regularly your files get updated.
4.Figure out the storage media
5.Decide when to schedule backup and frequency.
Basically this process will simplified your backup process that will make your life much easier.
1.Find out what files to be backup. Reduce what you backup regularly.
2.Find out how important your files are.
3.Find out how regularly your files get updated.
4.Figure out the storage media
5.Decide when to schedule backup and frequency.
Basically this process will simplified your backup process that will make your life much easier.
