Backing up your data is one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from potential data loss disasters. As someone who relies heavily on my computer and smartphone for both personal and professional needs, I have learned the hard way that backups are absolutely essential.
Here are some best practices I follow to keep my most important data protected through regular backups:
1. Identify your most critical data
The first step is to figure out which data is most essential to backup. For most of us, this includes:
- Personal photos and videos – Especially meaningful events and memories I want to preserve.
- Documents – Things like tax returns, medical records, etc. that would be difficult or impossible to replace.
- Projects – Such as creative work, code, designs, writing, etc. that I’ve invested significant time into.
- Settings and configurations – Custom settings for programs and devices that would be tedious to recreate from scratch.
I periodically review my data and maintain a list of the specific files/folders I want to focus my backup efforts on.
2. Use the 3-2-1 backup strategy
The 3-2-1 strategy is a best practice for creating resilient backups:
- 3 total copies of data – This protects against hardware failure, accidental deletion, corruption, etc.
- 2 local copies – Such as on your computer and an external hard drive.
- 1 offsite copy – Stored remotely like cloud storage in case of theft, fire, flood, etc.
Following this methodology ensures that you can recover from most common data loss scenarios.
3. Automate backups
The easiest way to consistently backup your data is to automate the process as much as possible. Here are some ways I automate parts of my backup system:
- Cloud syncing – Services like iCloud, Google Photos, Dropbox, etc. to sync certain folders in the background.
- Time Machine – Built-in MacOS tool that auto-saves system backups incrementally.
- External drive backups – Software like Arq and Cloudberry that backs up to local and cloud storage on a schedule.
Automation takes the manual work out of remembering to backup consistently.
4. Test restoration periodically
It’s important to periodically test that you can successfully restore from a backup by doing a test recovery of files. This helps uncover any issues with the backup process.
I try to do test restorations quarterly, restoring sample files from each of my backup sources. This provides peace of mind that my backups are working as intended.
5. Keep backups encrypted and secure
Since backups contain sensitive personal data, it’s crucial to keep them encrypted and secure. I use full-disk encryption on my boot drives, encrypted cloud backup services, and encrypted local external drives.
I also protect backup drives from physical theft and damage in a fire/flood safe. Authentication adds another layer of security on cloud services.
6. Consider redundancy for the most critical data
For my most important data, I add redundancy by maintaining multiple backup copies on different media types across multiple locations.
For example, I keep extra copies of my irreplaceable personal photos stored locally on an external SSD and printed out in addition to having cloud copies. Some data is so critical that having redundant backups offers extra assurance.
7. Have a way to quickly access backups
If you do suffer data loss, being able to rapidly access your backups is critical for minimizing downtime.
I make sure to have local backup drives attached and synced regularly so that I can immediately restore the data I need, rather than waiting to download it all from the cloud. Having a fast and reliable restore process is just as important as making backups.
8. Keep backups up-to-date
Outdated backups are not terribly useful if the data is no longer current. I make sure to back up documents/projects I’m actively working on at least daily.
For more static data like photos, I just check in periodically to make sure the cloud services and external drives are synced with the latest additions. Staying on top of updates ensures everything critical is properly backed up.
In summary, leveraging these backup best practices has given me confidence that my cherished digital data will be there when I need it, even if hardware fails or disasters strike. Investing a bit of time into a thoughtful backup system can save you from a lot of potential headache and heartbreak down the road.
