Backup, Backup, Backup
Way back in 2005, I had my horror hard drive crash story. Keeping backups of your data on a separate storage device or in the cloud is a way to protect your data when you have a crash or your original copy is lost, destroyed or damaged.
There is even a website to remind you to start backing up, March 31, as the World Backup Day.
Let’s learn the Tao of Backup.
- Coverage. Backup every file in your care, no matter how lowly. Even the smallest file can take days to recreate.
- Frequency. As frequently as you can - hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.
- Separation. Have multiple backups in multiple locations - physical or cloud.
- History. Make sure you have copies of your old backups.
- Testing. Test and make sure your backups actually works.
- Security. Make sure your backups are secure - physically and digitally.
- Integrity. Take care of the integrity of your data. If your original is corrupt, then the backup copy will likely be corrupt too.
3-2-1 Rule of Backup
An Industry popular backup method is the 3-2-1 Rule;
- 3 copies of the data,
- 2 different types of storage media, and
- 1 of them to be offsite in a remote location (this can be a cloud storage).