Articles in Category: Backing Up & Backup Programs

Nothing can save your computer and data from almost any disaster like a proper and recent back up. These articles discuss backup techniques, tools and more of the things you need to do to keep your data safe.

Is Online Backup a Good Idea?

Backing up data using an online backup service can be an important part of an overall strategy, but there are important limits and considerations.

If I Use a Cloud Sync Program to Back Up, Won’t Accidental Deletions Delete the Backup?

Backing up to auto-syncing cloud services is very convenient. But what happens when it syncs your mistake?

What Backup Software Should I Use?

Deciding what backup software to use relies on understanding what kind of backup you want to create. I’ll review the options.

Will Backing Up My Computer Back Up My Email?

To back up your email, you first have to figure out where it lives. It might be on your computer, or it might be on the internet.

What’s the Difference Between an Image Backup and a Files-and-Folder Backup?

This choice is about what you back up on your computer. It can make the difference between an easy or difficult recovery.

Should You Use the Free Backup Software that Comes with Some External Drives?

Many external drives include free backup software that I never use. I’ll explain why, and what I do instead.

How to Make a Windows Image Backup

While it’s not the best tool, it’s a tool you already have. Here’s how to use the Windows 7 backup tool to create a Windows image backup.

If External Hard Drives Can Fail, Should I Bother with One?

Any hard drive can fail. Failure is a fact of life, but data loss does not need to be.

This Is Why I Back Up

Here’s another example of why going digital enables a level of backup safety that single originals simply can’t achieve.

Recovering from Ransomware with an Online Backup

People often cite ransomware as a reason to avoid automated online backups, thinking that those backups will be impacted. OneDrive has thought of that.

How to Back Up Windows

Using free and included tools, here’s how to back up Windows and all your data in eight easy steps.

Recover Deleted Files in OneDrive

If you’re using OneDrive for your regular work, its recycle bin provides an extra layer of backup and protection.

Restoring Files With File History

When properly enabled and configured, File History can restore deleted files or previous versions of files that have changed.

Restoring a File From an EaseUS Todo Image Backup

An image backup contains everything, but that doesn’t mean you need to restore it all if you only need one file.

Enable File History in Windows 11

File History can be a useful component of a larger backup strategy. I’ll show you how to set it up.

Restoring an Image Using EaseUS Todo

Once you have an image backup and an emergency disk, here’s how you restore that image to your computer.

Creating an EaseUS Todo Emergency Disk

Before you can restore a backup image created using EaseUS Todo, you’ll need an emergency disk.

How to Avoid Losing Data No Matter What

Another day, another story of data loss. The frustrating thing is that it doesn’t have to happen.

Back Up Smartphone Photos Using Dropbox

Smartphones are a popular way to take snapshots and videos. Tools like Dropbox are great for making sure those are backed up automatically.

Why Do You Prefer Macrium Reflect Over Windows’s Own Image Backup Program?

Macrium Reflect is clearer and more fully featured than Windows’ built-in backup. It’s easier to understand and ultimately, I trust it more.

Why Can’t I Upload a Backup Image to the Cloud?

Uploading backup images sounds good until you do the math.

Dealing With Proprietary Backup Formats

If your backup program writes to a proprietary format, you may not be able to access it decades from now. I’ll discuss how to prepare.

Are You Ready for Your House to Burn Down?

What happens to all your carefully backed up data if your house burns down?

Couldn’t I Just Clone a Drive for Backup?

Cloning to a second drive every night has few advantages over a more flexible image backup solution.

Creating a Backup Image Using EaseUS Todo Free

Microsoft is removing image-backup capability from Windows. We’ll make an image backup using a free third-party alternative.

Don’t Use Windows Built-in Image Backup

The Windows 7 Backup and Restore tool is still present in Windows 11, but that doesn’t mean you should use it.

How Do I Restore a Backup to a New PC?

You probably want to keep the new operating system on your new machine. All that you need from your image backup is the data that has luckily been preserved.

How Should I Back Up a New Machine?

Backing up your new machine on arrival can be an important safety net. But there are degrees of safety.

How to Use Cloud Storage Safely

Cloud service providers often give us lots of storage we can use for cloud backup. How to use it safely, however, isn’t always obvious.

How Do I Test Backups?

It’s a good idea to test backups before disaster strikes. Unfortunately, a complete test can be risky. I’ll look at some alternatives.

How Do I Back Up My Computer?

Backing up your computer is critical to avoiding data loss but can seem complicated. I’ll give a suggestion for typical users.

Your Social Media Posts Can All Disappear

Every time you use someone else’s service, you put yourself and your content in their hands… for better or worse.

Backups ARE Security

Don’t overlook backing up as part of your security. When the worst happens, it’s your backup that will save you.

How Do I Transfer My System to a Replacement Drive?

Transferring data to a replacement drive needn’t be difficult. In fact, being prepared for a transfer is a side effect of backing up regularly.

How to Create an Image Backup

Once I’ve convinced you that image backups are important, your next question is most likely to be “OK, how?” Here’s a short-and-sweet answer.

Can I Rely on My Cloud Service’s Backups?

You can rely on online services for many things, but it’s unwise to rely on them too much.

What Good Is an Image Backup If All I Want Is My Data?

Image backups are great ways to back up absolutely everything on a hard disk. They’re also good for retrieving most anything, including individual files.

How Do I Back Up an Encrypted Container?

Backing up is critical, but exactly how you back up your encrypted container data depends on how secure your backups are.

Just What Is a Backup, Anyway?

At its most basic, backups are simple: a copy of something kept somewhere else to keep it safe.

The First Thing You Should Do With a New Computer

If you can, wait to play with your new computer for a little while. I have something important I want you to do first.

Is Cloud Backup Enough?

Cloud backup vs. backing up to an external drive isn’t really a debate. Why not both?

Why Is “Back Up First” Your Recommendation for Everything?

Nothing protects you and your data like a complete, recent backup, even when it might not be obvious. That’s why I harp on it so much.

How Long Should I Keep Backups?

Having a regular backup system in place is critical. But then what? I’ll look at how long you might want to keep those backups, why, and how long I keep mine.

Back Up with Dropbox

Using Dropbox to share files across machines is pretty common. You can also use Dropbox on only one machine as backup technology.

What Do I Do If My Backup Drive is Full?

If you’re backing up regularly to an external drive, chances are you’re accumulating lots of data. I’ll look at how to organize it, and what to keep.

Should I Use RAID for Backup?

RAID is a valuable technology for improving disk speed and fault tolerance, but it is in no way a replacement for backing up.

Restoring an Image Backup from One Computer to Another

The concept seems simple: take a system image of one machine, restore it to another, and avoid lengthy setup time. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

When Backups Might Not Save You from Ransomware

Ransomware is known for encrypting your data and holding it hostage. It turns out that it can do more that backups won’t protect against.