Tips on Combining Online and Offline Backups

In a world where over 70% of information is stored as digital files, having good backup routines is crucial. You can’t expect to protect your work-related documents, personal photos and videos, and other files that are just as valuable without having multiple backups of them.

There are a lot of backup options to choose from too. You can now back up your entire computer to the cloud with the right service. You can also choose to rely on external drives and Network Attached Storage or NAS to store your backups. In this article, however, we are going to discuss how you can combine online and offline backups seamlessly.

Some Spring Cleaning

Secure Data Recovery, a prominent name in the data recovery industry, suggests doing regular decluttering of files and data. This is a suggestion you want to take, especially if you’re starting with hard drives that have never been backed up in years.

Decluttering your files is a good way to ensure an effective backup of important files. Instead of having to upload hundreds – or even thousands – of files that you no longer use, you can focus your backup efforts on the files that really matter.

Reorganizing your files will also make the backup more useful. If you need to restore a particular file from the backup image, you don’t have to go through all of the files manually. Files should be arranged into folders for better backup management.

Know Your Options

It is always best to search for a cloud backup solution first. There are a lot of options on the market, but you can refine your search based on some features you will need as you start making backups of your files.

For starters, you want a cloud backup solution that also works with offline backups. Using a single backup software, you can back up files to both the offline storage and the cloud account automatically. This saves you a lot of time and allows you to integrate the two backup options in a better way.

Incremental backup is another must-have feature. The software should be able to identify changes to files and folders, and update the backup images based on those changes rather than backing up the entire drive from the start.

Make It a Habit

Many backup solutions are designed to be non-intrusive. You can forget about backing up your files after completing the initial setup process, since everything is done automatically. That said, you want to get into some extra habits to ensure that you have proper backup of important files.

Regularly checking the backup images, performing manual backups after important files are added to your drives and checking the storage space of your online and offline backups are habits that are beneficial. You will find maintaining a complete backup easier to do when you’re taking these steps as routines.

Last but certainly not least, always understand your recovery options. Combined with the previous tips we covered in this article, safeguarding your important files and personal details should be a walk in the park with both online and offline backup solutions in place.