There’s an old saying, “A stitch in time saves nine.” A little work done now will save a lot of work later. Of all the things we discuss on our journey together, this is most true of backing up your devices: desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. This recommendation is a MUST. You MUST backup the contents of your digital devices.
If your device is damaged or lost, or your files are inadvertently or intentionally corrupted, overwritten or deleted, there is little that can be done to recover them in the absence of a backup copy. The files that are lost could be inconsequential—last week’s shopping list perhaps, or irreplaceable—precious family photos that are not stored elsewhere. Take no chances, backup your files.
Backups containing sensitive data MUST be encrypted, ideally with an encryption key that you control. If you can’t conveniently select an encryption key, keep sensitive data in a virtual encrypted disk and backup the file containing the disk. I explain how to create virtual encrypted disks in the next post. Unencrypted backups are easy targets for hackers and other ne’er-do-wells.
Your encryption keys MUST be kept in a safe place. Password managers, discussed in a later post, are great locations to store encryption keys. Post-it notes stuck to your keyboard are not.
I strongly recommend that you validate the integrity of your backups. Different tools provide different means to accomplish this. A simple way to validate a backup is to recover a file and view it to make sure that it’s not been corrupted.
Backup and recovery is a little more involved than other topics in these posts, so we’ll take it a step at a time. We’ll start with strategy and end with some examples. Ultimately, you must decide how important your data is to you, and what steps you are willing to take to protect it.
For files you don’t wish to lose, I recommend you follow the “3-2-1 Rule.” Keep three (3) copies of your files: the original, a copy of the original, and a second copy of the original. Keep two (2) copies locally: the original and a copy of the original. Store one (1) copy remotely for disaster recovery. It’s common to save the remote copy online in secure cloud storage, and the local copy offline in an encrypted external drive.
For Windows desktops and laptops, it pays to keep two other types of backup: a recovery drive and a disk image. A recovery drive enables you to start your computer if the operating system on the internal drive is corrupted. This makes the process of recovery easier. A disk image is a copy of the entire internal drive, which enables you to restore the system to a known state if the disk fails. Should this occur, you can restore the disk image to a new drive, and add file changes since the last image backup. This is much easier than the alternative, which requires reinstallation and reconfiguration of the operating system, reinstallation and reconfiguration of all software products, and restoration of all files. A stitch in time saves nine. That said, many people lack the technical knowledge, and the desire, to recover a damaged PC. Don’t overthink this step. You’re making these backups for others to use. Put them in a safe place and, with luck, you’ll never have to use them.
For macOS, making a clone (a complete copy) of the internal disk drive supports recovery if the internal drive completely fails. This combines the recovery drive and disk image discussed above for Windows PCs. Making a disk clone requires third-party software, which I’ll discuss in a later post.
How often should you create backups? For files, that depends on how concerned you are about losing changes or new files. We’ll discuss this further in a later post, but daily is a good answer. Continuously is a better answer. Third-party products discussed in a later post make continuous backup painless.
You should update the recovery drive after major operating system updates (which happen infrequently). I recommend updating Windows disk image backups and macOS clones semi-annually. I put it on my calendar so I won’t forget.
In summary, you MUST backup your desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Backups containing sensitive data MUST be encrypted. Your encryption keys MUST be kept in a safe place. Validate your backups to make sure they’ll work when you need them. For file backups, follow the 3-2-1 rule. For Windows desktops and laptops, create a recovery drive and a disk image. Create a disk clone for macOS. Run file backups at least daily. Update the Windows recovery drive after major operating system updates. Update the Windows disk image and macOS clone semi-annually.
Onward to the details.
Information provided in this post is subject to the disclaimer in the first post of this series.