Backing up data is extremely important. That is, assuming you value your data. Many of us have pictures, videos and documents on our computer. The reality is, all machines will fail, everything gets old and stops working, eventually. Most notably, the Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives have a limited lifespan before they cease functioning.
Here is some advice to avoid that white-hot sweaty feeling from a black screen when you turn on your computer.
Back up your data!
Beyond hardware failure, there have been a series of recent ransomware attacks against individuals, businesses and government organizations. One particular bit of ransomware is called WannaCry. Presumably because if you are affected you “wanna cry.” It essentially encrypts all your data and leaves a message that tells you you can have your data back if you pay a ransom. This can be avoided entirely by doing regular offline backups.
Backing up your data is something that you will hear frequently but what do you use to back up your data? Drag and drop the contents of your home directory onto an external drive? That will fill up a drive pretty quick, and isn’t sustainable for the long term. You can pay for storage and sync your data up to “the cloud”, but that can get expensive if you have a lot of data. It also runs the risk of being compromised as well as it just replicates the contents of your data. I have been doing an Rsync command in the terminal but unless if I know that I have been compromised, it could overwrite my good data with bad data.
You Only Need Two Things
1st Item | External Hard Drive
The tools I recommend to get you started is some sort of high capacity external mass storage drive. Something like 1 TB or better. They are not expensive, especially if you compare the cost of a new drive to the cost of data recovery. Then you need to get the software. There are lots of great tools out there but rather than search forever for the best tool possible, start here and see if it works for you. Move on if needed and try something else but complete that first backup. Whatever drive you choose to use, ensure that is ALL that drive does. You plug it in, do your backup, unplug it and safely store it.
2nd Item | Software
I am not targeting Windows or Mac users but the fact of the matter is, most of the people I know are NOT on Linux (because they haven’t seen the light, yet). So I wanted to just highlight some FREE offline backup utility options to get you down the right path. This is free as in you don’t have to shell out any cash but feel free to contribute voluntarily to the projects.
Linux
Back In Time
This is what I use on my machine. It has worked very reliably for months now. I haven’t yet had to make any backups but when upgrading my Dell Latitude E6440 with the mSATA drive and growing the 2.5″ SSHD Home partition, I backed up the home drive prior to just in case I messed things up. Fortunately the process went well so no “recovery” was required. I continue to take weekly snapshots of my home directory.
Documentation for using Back In Time
Deja Dup
Easy to use, very friendly and can be set up for automated online or offline backups. This bit of software actually had more features to play with if you want to do snapshots to a networked service like Nextcloud, Google or a network share.
Windows
Shadow Copy
Shadow Copy has been included in Windows since Windows XP Service Pack 2 and is pretty basic but easy to use. I have the misfortune of using Windows daily because of a certain bit of required proprietary software. My work machine is still using Windows 7, good bad or otherwise and I also use Windows 7 in VM, therefore I am currently most familiar with that version.
To set up backups is very straight forward and since it is included in Windows, there is really no excuse to not back up your data… at all.
Here is a guide on using it in Windows 10
Mac OS
Time Machine
included in MacOS since Leopard (2007). I don’t have a Mac nor do I plan to purchase one. Since this is included with your operating system, there is no excuse to not using this utility. When you are done working or playing on your “fruit box”. Plug in that $50 external drive and create that snapshot.
Here is a guide to set it up.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250
Final Thoughts
Back up your data. Really, just take the time, do it and be done with it. Make it a point to keep your data backed up once a week or every other week… even once a month would be great. There are many, many backup solutions out there, some are free, some are paid services and many may even be better for you. I highly, highly, recommend you make your offline backups and store them safely.
External Links
Documentation for using Back In Time
Solid-state drives (SSDs) have grown popular in recent years for the impressive speed increases your system gains using them. To get the most from your SSD, however, you can (and should) do a few things differently.
http://www.valuegist.com mail sandy@valuegist.com