Hard drives fail. Laptops get dropped. Ransomware locks up files. A backup turns any of those from a disaster into an inconvenience. Here’s a setup that’s simple enough that you’ll actually keep it running.
The 3-2-1 rule
The standard advice is easy to remember: keep three copies of anything you care about, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy somewhere other than your house. For most people that means:
- The original, on your computer.
- A copy on an external drive at home.
- A copy in the cloud.
A flood, a fire, or a break-in can take the computer and the external drive at the same time. That’s what the cloud copy is for.
The cloud copy: OneDrive and Windows Backup
Windows 11 includes an app called Windows Backup. It can copy your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Music folders to OneDrive, and save your settings so a new computer is easier to set up. A free Microsoft account comes with 5 GB of OneDrive storage, which fills up fast once photos are involved. More space is a paid plan. Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud work too. Pick the one you’ll keep paying for.
One catch: a synced folder isn’t quite a backup. If you delete a file, or ransomware scrambles it, that change can sync to the cloud too. Most services let you get back deleted files or older versions for a limited time, but don’t count on that as your only copy.
The local copy: an external drive
Get an external drive at least as big as what you’re backing up, and preferably twice that. Windows has a feature called File History (search for it in the Start menu) that copies your files to the drive on a schedule and keeps older versions. If you overwrite a document by mistake, you can go back to yesterday’s copy.
Two habits make it work:
- Plug it in on a schedule. A backup drive that’s been in a drawer since spring has spring’s files on it.
- Unplug it when you’re done. Ransomware can encrypt any drive that’s connected, including your backup. A drive sitting in a drawer is safe.
Test it
A backup you’ve never restored from is a guess. Every few months, open the backup and pull a file or two back out. Make sure photos open and recent documents are actually there.
What backups tend to miss
Email stored only on the computer, which some older Outlook setups do. Passwords saved only in the browser. Files kept outside the usual folders, like a folder made directly on the C: drive. License keys for older software you’d have to reinstall. I can look over your setup and catch these.
If it’s already too late
If a drive has failed and there’s no backup, stop using the computer and call. Running a failing drive can make recovery harder. See data recovery. Moving to a faster drive anyway? My SSD upgrade includes copying everything across.
Get it sorted
I serve Magnolia, The Woodlands, Conroe, Montgomery, Spring, Tomball, Woodforest, Lake Windcrest, and Westwood.
Nearby but not listed? Give me a call.
Call (346) 291-7330, or send me a message and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
