The World Backup Day is here and Silicon Power wants to take the opportunity to remind individuals and organizations alike about the importance of data protection. Having a backup in place can make a world of difference when facing stressful situations such as data loss and data breach scenarios.

What Would You Do If You Lost Everything?

This unnerving thought is likely something you haven’t had to deal with, nevertheless it doesn’t stop it from being an important consideration. Every day businesses and individuals lose their information for good simply because they fail to follow on one of the most simple and basic of data related tasks, backup.

Remember Murphy’s Law? “In any field of endeavor anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. Your computer systems and devices are not an exception to the rule. Regardless how reliable and safe you think they are, there is always a chance you might lose your data without possibility of recovering it. With so many people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in most cases with subpar data and network protection compared to what they might have at work, the risk has only gotten worse. It is more important than ever to protect your data by backing it up regularly.

To help you make the best out of your World Backup Day we have put up a non-exhaustive list of tips and suggestion that might help you navigate the backup process:

1. Don’t downplay the importance of the backup and just do it.

As stated before the possibility of losing your data for good is real, and you should not underestimate it. Let’s face it backing up your data does feel like a chore at times, however with hardware failures and human errors as two of the main causes of data loss, you should err on the side of caution, set some time aside and just do your backups. Not convinced yet, Google and read some “data loss horror stories” and that might give you the extra push you need.

2. Devise your strategy

As stated above backing up your data isn’t exactly the most entertaining way of spending your Friday night. Laying out your strategy upfront will allow you to eliminate any unnecessary steps, avoid making mistakes and overall make sure the process goes as smooth and quickly as possible. Asking yourself these 5 questions will help you navigate this process:

● What data do I want to back up?

In some cases you might find you have multiple version of a file and only 1 of them is necessary.  

● Where is that data located?

You might think all the data you want to backup is in your computer, but perhaps that thumb drive you saw on your drawer last week might hold something of importance. Additionally, the data in your computer might not be the only one you want to backup, setting time to back up devices like your smartphone will pay off in the long run.

● Where will I store my backups?

Point 3 and 4 will touch on this question, but essentially have more than 1 backup and invest in reliable storage solutions.

● How often should I back up my data?

There is no size fit all, the frequency of your backups will depend on who you are, your needs and the type of information you handle. One thing for certain is that separating your information in terms of importance and setting different schedules based on that information is a good start.

● How often should I test my backups?

You can make your life easier and match your testing schedule to your backup schedule to avoid missing any dates.

On a side note, at this point you might want to look for the best way to automate your backups, depending solely on your willpower is never a good idea.

3. Follow the 3-2-1 rule.

Following the 3-2-1 rule is very simple and will ensure that your data is properly backed up. The rule states that you should have 3 copies of your data, 2 acting as backups and 1 acting as the master copy. The master copy will be the one you will be typically working and reading from, in terms of a computer this is the internal drive. The two backups should ideally be done in different forms of media, one of them acting as a local backup while the other being kept offsite. External drives are typically the media of choice for local backups, while cloud storage is usually selected as the “offsite” backup.

4. Invest in good storage.

For both internal and external storage this means investing in reliable drives. For both cases, SSDs lack of moving parts, and better performance might give them an edge over traditional hard drives. This holds especially true for the internal drive meant to contain the master copy of your information, drives such as the PCIe 3.0 Gen3x4 P34A80 and PCIe Gen4x4 US70 offer remarkable durability and performance.

In the case of external drives, what you end up choosing will depend largely on your needs, desires and overall lifestyle. External SSDs the likes of the Silicon Power PC60 can offer its users great portability and performance, all packed in very small dimensions. On the other hand, people who value high storage capacity, more than speed might find in external hard drives their ideal solution. Furthermore, if the idea of having a drive with moving parts bothers you, ruggedized external hard drives, such as the Armor A60, Armor A85, with their robust military-grade shockproof designs and IP ratings might be exactly what you need for.

5. Test Your Backup

You might have followed the 3-2-1 rule to the letter and even spent your money on great storage; however this doesn’t mean you are already in the clear. One of the worst things that could happen is finding out that your backup doesn’t work properly in the midst of an emergency.

Testing your backups by scheduling and running some “restore drills” will give you an accurate idea of how long it takes to restore all files, how easy is to recover a specific file among your entire backup, and essentially how reliable and seamless the process runs.

If you made it this far, then congratulations, you might be one step closer to protecting your data against loss. All that is left to do is to get to it. Don’t be an April’s fool and backup your data today.