Simple online data backup

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Simple Data Backup Strategy |OnGuard BACKUP Plan

There is no "the best" data backup strategy that would perfectly fit withabsolutely everyone's needs. You need to keep in mind that the amount ofdata, storage devices, the value of data and the need for safety vary in a largerange. Instead of copying some ready-made data backup strategy one by one,the best solution is to understand the most important safety principles andcreate such data backup solutions that fit your real-life needs the best.

Four simple rules for creating your original safe data backup strategyare:

1. Make copies of your data regularly.2. Automate the backup making process.3. Save backup copies on different mediums.4. Store your backups in remote locations.

These rules are a short sum-up of what you should do with your data to keep itsafe. When creating a simple data backup plan, you need to think a little bitabout your data structure, real risks, and create backup procedures, whichoffer simple solutions for the most potential accidents. Let's describe eachlisted rule in more detail and see why they are included in the data backupstrategy rules list.

What Are Typical Threats?

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Typical data threatening situations are accidental deletions, hard disk failures,computer viruses, thefts, fire and flood accidents. Data storage equipment hasbecome more reliable over time, but hard drive failure rate is still around 4.2-4.8% annually. The risk of a fire accident is about 0.32% annually. Expressedin percentages, they do not seem like huge risks taken individually, but toreceive total risk level, you need to sum them up.

As technological risks, like hardware failure, may be quite well-definedconstants, other risks may vary quite a lot by different factors. For example,the risk of flooding in your house is quite serious if you are living at the seasideor on the banks of a bigger river. What people often forget is that there canalso be smaller man-made "floodings", which may not be so dramatic buthappen even more often. Some examples are accidents with water pipes,forgetting a laptop in the rain, spilling coffee all over computer or dropping alaptop into a swimming pool. You might want to establish some common senserules for eliminating some of those risks, like not drinking coffee near yourlaptop, but some unforeseeable risks still remain.

If you add up all possible risks (and there are many of them), you may have ashigh as 25% probablity of losing some of your data during the next year. Thisleads us to the need of making backups and have copies available if somethinghappens with the main storage device.

Regularity and Data Backup Intervals

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If you make backups every week on a certain day then, hypotheticallyspeaking, you may lose maximally one week's data. Sometimes it is ok to losesome kind of data, like movies or music files, but you will not be happy if youlose original spreadsheets and word processing documents prepared duringlast week. If you reason the same way, you should think about which backupinterval seems comfortable for you and do backups regularly.

A good data backup plan defines clearly when you should back up certain datafolders to have the latest data available when you need it. Regularity meansthat you have solid procedures to make copies at a certain time, no matterwhat. There is the tricky part, because the more often you need to makebackups, the more time you spend on managing backups. Making backupsmanually may take up an impressive amount of your time annually. This leadsus to the second element of good data backup strategy, which is automation.

Good Data Backup Strategy Is Automated

If your data backup plan defines a daily interval, making manual backupsbecomes quite time consuming, and you may discover now and then that youhave skipped making backups because you had something else more importantto do at the time. It is better to foresee the risk of not making backups and tryto automate the whole backup process as much as possible.

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For local backups you may use Windows backup tool, which was introduced inWindows 7 and is available also in Windows 8 (open Control Panel > AllControl Panel Items > File History > System Image Backup). For moreadvanced backup automation, you should check out special software solutions,like Ocster or GoodSync. For professional backup management, werecommend PC Disk Tools, which has options for backing up multiplecomputers. Automation helps you to save time you would otherwise spend onroutine work. Automated processes are often more reliable and the risk offorgetting making backups is eliminated.

If you decide to use an online backup solution, many of them are automatedtoo, see the list of the best online providers on under "Save Data Backups toRemote Locations".

Save Data Backups on Different Mediums

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If your main backup medium is a large external hard disk, you might considerusing additional storage mediums, which reduce the risk of losing data becauseof technical failures. For less dynamic files, which you probably won't edit anymore, like old homevideos or self-made pictures, you can use optical storage,for example DVDs or even CDs. Instead of using an old fashioned hard drive,you could use SSD thumb drives or memory cards, which are known for higherreliablity than conventional hard disks. Having multiple copies in differentmediums offers more opportunities for carrying data with you and transportingdata backups to remote locations.

Store Data Backups in Remote Locations

In the case of hard disk failure, it is not enough to have backups on anotherdisk in the same location. You need to keep in mind that this will not help you inthe case of accidents, like fire, theft or flooding. In order to make sure thatyour data survives these catastrophies, you need to take your data andtransport it to some other locations. It may be your friend's house, a cabin inthe woods or a safe box in a local bank - you can surely find a good place tostore your backups. The problem with transporting your backups to remotelocations is that it takes efforts, time and money (for example, if you rent asafe box in a local bank). The biggest trouble is that restoring the data fromsuch remote locations takes time, because you need to bring the copy from theremote storage.

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Online backup is also efficient in regardst to automation, you don't need tomake backups manually any more. The best online backup providers also offerversioning, so you will have multiple copies of your files and you may choose torestore some earlier copies if you need to.

One possible solution for storing data remotely is to use online data backupservice. Some of the best providers are Carbonite, Backblaze, Livedrive,ZipCloud and MyPCBackup, they all offer safe and reliable services. Withonline backup you don't need to transport your backup disk yourself, but yourfiles are encrypted and sent to a remote server. Because of bank-gradeencryption, your data is safe and restoring is arranged much more efficiently,compared to any other remote backup solution.

Don't Overkill, Simple Strategy is Better

If you haven't done regular backups so far, our suggestion is to start with asimple backup plan. A good backup strategy is easy to implement and youhave copies of your data always available when you need them. Start withbuying an external hard disk with solid capacity, and making backups weekly. Ifyou would like to have more frequent backups and store them safely in aremote location, you should read some articles about how online data backupworks or check out the details about some best providers, for exampleCarbonite, Livedrive and ZipCloud to see if they are a good choice for yourbackup needs.

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Simple online data backup