The Beginner＇s Guide to PC Backup | PCMag

SiACNTs 2020-10-15

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We all know we're supposed to back up our data. It's essential to a person's well-being and peace of mind, and one copy of a file on your computer does not a backup make. Redundancy, people, redundancy!

Just look at these stats directly from WorldBackupDay.com—the big day is Sunday, March 31—presented video style:

That's millions of people, who produce quadrillions of files ever year (there were 1.2 trillion digital photos taken in 2017 alone; imagine what that number is now), with a big risk of losing all that work.

Why do so many people—30 percent of us, according to WorldBackupDay—still not bother to back up? Phones get lost or stolen, computers get infected, accidents happen. Yet, even after losing an important document, irreplaceable photo, or entire sets of financial records, some still don't take the time.

Perhaps it's because backing up takes some effort. In the past, it's been overly complicated. Now, thanks to new software, hardware, and services, it's easier than ever. Here's a quick look at the types of backup available, as well as the tools you'll need to pull it off, with as little work as possible.

Types of PC Backup

Backing up can be as simple as copying a file from one spot to another, say from your hard drive to a removable USB flash drive. But the arsenal of tools at your disposal can do so much more. What you need for redundancy, security, and access dictates what kind of backup you should use.

Select Files and Folders

If you only need to back up specific data, use software that will let you pick and choose which files you want to save. (Remember, simply moving a file isn't backing it up. You need at least two copies.) To be safe, back up entire folders on a recurring basis to ensure that newly created or updated files get backed up at a later date.

There's plenty of free software to take care of this for you, including Windows 10's integrated Backup and Restore feature—you can find it via the Start Menu > Settings > Update & Security > Backup. It lets you create a full system image or even create a repair disc for when Windows inevitably goes bad.

A system image is a full copy of your entire Windows system drive as it exists—so if you ever have to restore it, it'll be exactly as it was on the day of the backup (for more on disk images, see below ).

There's also File History, a backup option that came along first in Windows 8. It offers recurring copying of files you use to a secondary drive as backup—and the option to restore only the version of a file you need to recover. File History is a lot easier to set up, but it's also more limited.

For more options, read The Best Backup Software.

Cloud Storage and File-Synchronization Services

A must for anyone with more than one computer or device in use, synchronization software ensures you have the same files on all your PCs. Make a change to a file and it's automatically sent to all the other PCs using the account, even on other operating systems. They always include a backup of files online, which you can access anywhere, even via smartphones. It's the ultimate in redundancy.

Big names in this area include Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive (Free at Microsoft Store) ; the latter earned a full five stars in our latest review.

All of the services provide a few gigabytes of online storage for free, typically 2GB, but you can get a lot more by paying a monthly or yearly fee.

For more, check out The Best Cloud Storage and File-Sharing Services.

Online Backup Services

We're in the era of the cloud, so online backup, once a bit specialized, is now the norm for important files. Unlike the above services, which also include a file-sync option, straight backup products lean toward direct transfer of files from a hard drive to online/cloud storage, with easy restoration options. They may throw in some file syncing, but you're more likely to see security as the bigger option.

Install software on a PC, tell it which files/folders to keep backed up, and it does the rest in the background. Because the storage is online, you can typically read files via the browser, or restore the files to other systems, as needed. Big names you've heard of in this are: iDrive, SOS Online Backup, Acronis True Image (all Editors' Choice picks), and Carbonite .

For more, read The Best Online Backup Services for 2019.

Cloning a Full Disk Image

There are several ways to back up an entire hard drive. The first: use software to copy all the files from the drive to another (larger) drive. This means you get everything, even if you don't need it, but it is easy to keep up-to-date and restore select files from it as needed.

Arguably the better method is to make an image of the drive, also referred to as cloning. An image is a replica of all of your data—every file and folder, even the programs and system files—taken like a snapshot of the drive at the given moment. When used for restoration, the clone/image overwrites the existing system and the hard drive reverts to the state it was in at the time of backup.

Imaging/cloning is a great way to back up a brand new computer. Then, when it starts acting wonky (it happens to all computers) you can revert the drive back to its original settings. Keep in mind, however, that this is like going back to the factory settings—albeit your own—which means the restoration will not include data accumulated after the original imaging. That data should be backed up separately. (Yes, you should have two sets of backups running. Have I mentioned redundancy yet?)

(To go back to factory settings with Windows 10, you don't even need a disk image—the Windows 10 Refresh Tool will try to set the OS back to how it should be at the beginning of use.)

Your best option: do a full disk-image backup on a regular basis, with data included, using software that can read images and selectively pull files for restoration when necessary. You will need a very big backup destination drive to pull it off, typically an external hard drive or your own home network storage option.

Third-party software for imaging a drive includes the free DriveImage XML, Clonezilla, or Macrium Reflect Free; or try the high-end paid solutions if you plan to make cloning a habit.

For more, read How to Clone a Hard Drive.

Backup Destinations

How you back up data may depend on the type of media you use as the destination site. Here are some options.

External Drives

It doesn't get much easier than this: Plug an external storage drive into your PC and get started. Of course, drives come in all shapes, sizes, and configurations. A standard drive won't cost much, but it won't do anything but sit there and let you do all the work (not that there's anything wrong with that). Almost all drives today use connectors like USB 3.0 or USB-C to get incredibly fast transfer rates.

Perhaps your biggest decision will be whether to go with faster but more expensive solid-state drives (SSD). Unlike hard disk drives, SSDs have no moving parts and that means fantastic performance—which is always a plus when you've got a lot of data to copy.

For more, check out SSD vs. HDD: What's the Difference and the video above. If you're not sure how to pick, read The Best M.2 Solid-State Drives and How to Copy Your Windows Installation to an SSD.

CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray Discs

The old standby for backup is to copy your files to a shiny disc. The downsides remain capacity and speed; the new downside is that it's harder to get computers with CD drives these days.

CD-Recordables (CD-Rs) can only hold so much data (around 700MB, maximum)—that's so small it's going to feel like using a floppy disk. A DVD-R is much better at 4.7GB, but even 8.5GB dual-layer DVD-R discs won't hold your entire music and photo collection. Dual-layer Blu-ray discs (BD-Rs) store up to 50GB, but the prices fluctuate. A few years back, we found a 50-disc spindle for $25, but supplies must be down as these days they go for closer to $90. Even at that capacity, backing up to discs will feel interminably slow compared with fast hard drives and flash drives. Who wants to swap discs in and out all the time?

The upsides: Disk-based media is cheap (as long as it's in stock). Discs are super portable, and it's always a good idea to keep a backup of your data offsite, if possible. If a disaster takes out your computer, it won't destory what's not there.

USB Flash Drives

Small USB drives are almost as inexpensive as discs, even as their capacity increases. They have the advantage of being ultra-portable. Maybe too portable, since they're easy to lose (and steal). But locking one multi-GB flash drive in a safe deposit box is easier than storing discs or hard drives. Some USB drives are even designed for protection from the elements, making them a safer destination for your data.

Of course, you need to get the largest capacity drive you can get—generally 512GB—to back up everything, especially if you'll be imaging your drive. That can get expensive but might be worth it for the convenience.

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

A NAS device is a storage drive (or drives) that lives on your network, so all the users on the network can access it. Sometimes, a NAS is called a home server. They're not always cheap, and some don't even include built-in storage—you have to purchase drives separately. NAS boxes are getting easier to work with every day.

NAS can do a lot more than back up a few files. Many can back up multiple computers in a home or office. Streaming media from a NAS to a device like a game console or smartphone is commonplace; sharing files across the network and out to the internet, making it a web server, is also the norm. Most NAS boxes feature FTP, online remote access, security controls, and different RAID configurations to determine how drives store your data (redundantly or spread across drives). Some have multiple Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB ports. Some capture input from networked digital video cameras. The options seem almost endless, which makes it worth shopping around to get the right one for your home or office.

Naturally, we've got picks for the Best Network Attached Storage Devices. You can't go wrong with the price or abilities of our top-rated NAS brands, which tend to be QNAP and Synology—the latter is consistently the winner of our Readers' Choice Awards for NAS manufacturers.

The Cloud

We kind of covered this above, but it bears repeating, as the cloud is the future (as well as the present) of backup. The cloud refers to online storage. Sometimes it's used by a service, like Google Drive, to store your data. It can also be straightforward storage space provided by big companies or small, like our current Editors' Choice favorite, iDrive, which lets you back up multiple devices to 2TB of cloud storage for $69.50 a year.

Cloud-based direct PC backup is not new. Carbonite and competitors have been around for years providing direct backup of files on your computer to the internet, usually in the background and in a completely unobtrusive way. There is typically a free tier of service and a subscription fee to back up more stuff (the amount depends on the service).

If you have only a few small files to store, and you probably have a Google/Gmail account, then stick with Google Docs. Upload any kind of file you want to the service, as long as the file is less than 250MB in size. You get 15GB of free space across all your Google services; the next tier is 100GB for $1.99/month.

Adding files or entire folders is as easy as dragging them to your documents list if you use the Chrome browser. Google Docs will convert the file to Docs format for online editing if you desire; then the file won't count against your storage. And if you're backing up pictures and videos, use Google Photos, which will let you store them for free if you make sure the images/vids are limited in quality.

Read Tricks to Master Google Photos for more.

What to Back Up (In Addition to the Obvious)

It might seem like enough to point your backup software to your documents, pictures, videos, and music folders and let it do its thing. Maybe it is, if you're diligent about putting your data in the right place on your drives. Even so, there are other types of data you should think about backing up.

Browsers

Don't lose carefully cultivated browser bookmarks or favorites. Major browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have built-in backup—as long as you've got accounts with Mozilla and Google. The browsers will back up data like bookmarks, history, add-ons, even your open tabs in some cases—and sync it across browsers and computers.

On Firefox type in 'about:preferences#sync' in the address bar; on Chrome, type 'chrome://settings/syncSetup' (both without the quotes). Microsoft provides some info on backing up favorites in the Edge browser.

For more, check out How to Organize and Sync Your Browser Bookmarks.

Email

If you're using a web-based email system like Gmail or Outlook.com, this may not seem like much of an issue—all your mail is in the cloud, controlled by big companies, what could go wrong? Well, even big companies have outages and get hacked. So if all your messages are mission critical, grab a backup occasionally.

For Gmail you can use Google Takeout. Outlook.com doesn't really let you export, but a third-party software product like eM Client (free for home use, $49.95 for pro) can access Gmail and Outlook.com and run an autobackup.

Using client software like Outlook with Microsoft Office 365 is the preference of many, but the backup situation is a lot more complicated, as it requires backing up a file called the PST (Personal Storage Table). Microsoft provides full instructions.

The best solution of all: use Outlook with a service that stores your email on the server—that could be something like Microsoft's own Outlook.com or Gmail, or at a work account through an Exchange Server or IMAP. Then you've got your message in the cloud, but also in an OST (Offline Outlook Data File)—which again you can back up separately.

Drivers

If you've got hardware peripherals attached to your computer, you've got drivers—the software that lets your PC talk to video cards, printers, scanners, and the like. If you haven't done a disk image, at least grab your current drivers with a tool like Double Driver.

If you don't back up, you may have to rummage through manufacturers' websites to grab drivers during a PC restore—but to be honest, that might be the better way to go. Then you'll have the most up-to-date drivers all digitally signed and from the proper source. It will take more time, but may benefit your PC and you in the long run.

Social Networks

It may seem weird to back up info that you don't keep on your hard drive, but do you seriously trust Twitter and Facebook to never, ever suffer a catastrophic data loss? Be prepared. You can't exactly use these backups to restore them to online use, but better to have a redundant copy for your records and failing memory than risk losing it all.

Read How to Download Your Facebook Data (and 6 Surprising Things I Found) for details. Twitter is similar, but less complex: on your desktop browser go to your account settings. Scroll down and click 'Request your archive.' You'll be emailed a link with the full file of all your tweets and uploaded pics.