Home backup users have different needs than businesses. Their strategy is generally to sync just one folder (and all its subfolders) to the cloud, and in some cases, offer collaborative document editing. Those services do store files in the cloud, but they aren't designed to automatically protect all important documents and media files, let alone system files. The downside is that they tie you to annual fees, and uploading and downloading backups is slower than loading local copies.ĭon't confuse online backup with cloud storage and file syncing, which is what Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and OneDrive offer. The big plus of this option is that the data is off your premises, and therefore not susceptible to local disasters. Online backup services securely send your data over the internet and save it on remote file servers in encrypted form. Usually, you'll need to run a pre-boot environment from startup media to restore a system image, since doing so from within your main OS isn't possible.Īs mentioned, you can make local backups or online backups, sometimes called cloud backups. But that extra protection comes at the price of more complexity in setting up and restoring. Some products can even update a disk image nearly continuously. A disk image contains every bit of data on the drive and offers stronger protection, since it enables you to recreate the whole system after a hard drive failure. With incremental, you need the latest full backup and all the intermediary backup data to restore a file to its original state, whereas with differential, you just need the last set of differential backup data and the first full one.Ī step further than the simple copying of files is copying the entire hard drive, including system files, as what's called a disk image. Incremental backup saves system resources by only backing up changes in files from the last incremental backup, and differential backup saves all changes from the last full backup. The first should be obvious-all the data you've selected for backup is copied in its entirety. More granular options include whether backups are full, incremental, or differential. Usually, you also have the option to tell the backup service to monitor your drive for changed or new files as they occur. Most backup software lets you schedule scans of your hard drive for new and changed files daily, weekly, monthly, or continually (or at least, say, every 15 minutes). Should you lose the files, either through disaster or simply by deleting them or overwriting them, you can just restore them from the saved copies.įor this to work, the copies of your files must be updated regularly. That storage can be another drive, an external drive, a NAS, a rewritable disc, or "the cloud," meaning someone else's servers.
The concept behind backup software is pretty simple: Make a copy of your files on storage separate from your main hard drive. These are all well worth running, but they have some limitations, lacking some of the extra benefits you get from running standalone backup software. Both also offer some cloud backup, with iCloud and OneDrive, as well. Windows 10 and Windows 11 include a File History feature and a full disk backup feature, and macOS includes its Time Machine software. Backup software and services do just that.īoth Windows and macOS have beefed up their built-in backup tools in recent years. Your business assets-documents, plans, financial spreadsheets-as well as your personal assets-family photos, videos, and music-deserve to be protected. Sometimes data loss happens for reasons beyond the technological, as in the case of theft or natural disasters. Hard drive failure is a common occurrence, and ransomware can make a computer's contents inaccessible. All technology, whether it's a brand-new iMac or a ten-year-old PC running Windows 7, can potentially take a sudden nosedive.
If it can happen to a big corporation like Delta, don't think it can't happen to you. Several years ago Delta Airlines had to cancel more than 1,300 flights, at a cost of $100 million, not because of weather or mechanical problems, but because the company's computer systems went down.
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