Backup day... disaster strikes... all data gone and no extra backups

All the experts say to only connect your external drives when you are doing backups. That is to protect them from power surges, computer viruses, etc.

I did that for several years. Unfortunately, I only occasionally remembered to make backups. Then one day one of my hard drives with important data failed. The backups for this drive were over six months old so I lost a lot of data.

I decided I wasn't going to let that happen again. My solution was to start making automatic backups after midnight. The only way this was going to work was to leave the external drives hooked up all the time. Important data is backed up once a day. All drives are backed up once a week.

Note the computers when not being used go to sleep. The backup program wakes the computers for backups. When the backups are done the computers go back to sleep.

Whatever your configuration, consider the worst that can happen.. from degradation to complete sudden loss... and how you would recover from that.

Don't keep personal data on C: if you can avoid it.
Make recovery as easy as possible. Plan from the start where you are going to store your personal data when you install Windows. Having personal data on C: in particular is not the best option, as your O/S is the most likely to require restoration of a disk image- or even a clean install. In the first case, an old version of personal data is restored. In the second, all is lost.

Better to store personal data on a separate partition or disk.

Alerts and detection of incipient disk failure
- Establish continuous monitoring for degradation so you are alerted early. E.g. Crystal Diskinfo (free), Hard Disk Sentinel.
- Disk Imaging, using a program that implements it, can alert you to data corruption/a potentially failing disk- when imaging that disk fails.
- An appropriate combination of backup methods, online / offline storage as appropriate to your situation.

Backup approaches
Use a combination of
- disk imaging
- data backup of key fast-changing data using an appropriate program.
as appropriate to your situation and perhaps to each disk or partition.

You will probably run disk imaging less frequently than you do any form of targetted data backup.
That data backup could be synchronised, scheduled or manual. Choose appropriately.
Consider using a method that offers versioned backups.

Some special cases:
Data stored by browsers (favourites/perhaps passwords), email client-related data (address book, mail rules, emails...) can be hard or impossible to retrieve from an offline O/S in some cases.

Understand from the outset how these data are held and how you can recover and restore them in the worst case.
Doing that will help you to decide which program and which approach you are going to use.

Problem with threads/discussions like these is that we're just preaching to the converted. By the time someone who should have been practising safe-backups, but hasn't, needs some urgent/cogent advice and gets here (for information), it's too late.

MisterEd said:

Unfortunately, I only occasionally remembered to make backups.

MisterEd,

I hope you don't mind my asking but didn't you consider using Task scheduler to bring up a vbs MsgBox each week telling you to do your backup?


Denis

Try3 said:

MisterEd,

I hope you don't mind my asking but didn't you consider using Task scheduler to bring up a vbs MsgBox each week telling you to do your backup?


Denis

I am doing daily and weekly backups on three computers. Each has its own external backup hard drive. You expect me to to do all that manually? No thanks.

MisterEd said:

All the experts say to only connect your external drives when you are doing backups. ... I did that for several years.

MisterEd said:

Unfortunately, I only occasionally remembered to make backups.

MisterEd said:

You expect me to to do all that manually? No thanks.

I was merely responding to what you claimed the reason for stopping to be after you had been doing it for several years.

Denis

MisterEd said:

All the experts say to only connect your external drives when you are doing backups. That is to protect them from power surges, computer viruses, etc.

Have auto backup set for o/nite, and have a rotation of drives, but leave one connected at any given time. If you forget to swap over, it just backs up to the drive that was left connected. If the backup drive is damaged, then you're only 1, maybe 2, backups out of date.

idgat said:

Problem with threads/discussions like these is that we're just preaching to the converted. By the time someone who should have been practising safe-backups, but hasn't, needs some urgent/cogent advice and gets here (for information), it's too late.

Exactly my point.. That's why a new tradition as Backup day or Backup Monday would be a good thing.. that way you always have an active subject that will bring the new people onboard on the train..
""What is this backup day.. i also want to do that as it sounds as a smart thing.."" and then when new people get curious and want to join in.. and start to ask "what program do you use".. then they get an answer.. "how to i set up the auto filesync as you have"... and they get an answer.

I think that might be a way to get people to start backup their personal data... and dalchina in the post above mention a good thing of not having personal data on C: as it make restoration easier... But that can be hard on a laptop with only a OEM system partition without an extra data partition. But filesync can solve that by targeting the user folder.. then most of the personal data will get copied.
The system in it self isn't critical personal data.. you can install it again and you can get hold of new licenses keys if you had not writhe them down elsewhere.. bookmarks.. not fun to lose, but still not critical as photos, some documents and so on.




The question and the purpose of this thread is.. How do we get new people on the backup-train?
It really hurts to see how some loses precious data as photos on there kids growing up and so on..

Marie SWE said:

Having a setup on a NAS is redundancy.. but it don't mean jack if disaster strikes as ransomware or if thunderstorm lightning hits and fry it all.

in the late 90's i had a server with 20 drives in three raid clusters and two desktops and lightning did strike and wipe them all out in less then a second.. they was toasted 0% possibility for recovering the data.
That's why you have external backups or offsite backup.. but best is both in combination.

i still have the same redundancy its just that i don't have to clone mine every week i do things once and only once and that is the difference, i can restore just about everything on my PC that i need to and that is the brilliance of not getting caught in the need to rely on "back up" all my settings are saved and the files that i warrant as needing to be stored elsewhere. i can re apply them all if i need to.

I do some things periodically but i am not overly concerned about weekly backups and this pc has been going since 2015 well more like 2010 but on windows 10 since 2015 without back ups i have other computers never backed up either. Maybe that is saying either i am lucky or that maybe i am good at avoiding mistake.

Not really scared about malware i never get it and i know the signs, i also know how to diagnose a computer well and i never have problems with this stuff.

Sure someone less inclined would be better off with cloning their hard drive i don't need this. Like i said its subjective and i have my needs covered.

if you are getting hardware failure then that is just unlucky i have lots of parts/computers new and used and i never have anything fail either i think the last time something failed on me i was a kid and i am in my 30s now. Maybe i have lucked out here too but i do select and look after parts that are in good condition and also good quality else i cycle parts away from being relied on.

I am not going to jerry rig a computer that has one compromised part in it i do testing before hand.

am i really at risk from being put out? not really. i might not have a 1:1 copy of my computer but most of the relevant stuff is just a few clicks away, if we are going to get as minute as saying but if back up 3 fails and back up 4 fails or god smites you then that is bit far fetched imo. Like you really got to back up that many times? you work for the CIA?

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I did refrain initially from posting in here and that is because i know i just come across as apposing opinion that is fine i did say its all subjective.

I am not as close to being burnt as you think.