Making copies of data so that the copies may be used to restore the original after a data loss event, or for historical retention.

A backup is where you make a copy, or copies, of data, settings, preferences and other such information that would allow you to restore to the original state in the event of a data loss. It's also used for archival and historical retention.

Backup methods

  • Full - back up everything
  • Differential - back up things that changed since the last back up.

Strategies

  • External hard drive
  • Cloud storage syncing
  • Remote and off-site copies

Test your backup data

Backups are useless and futile if in the process to recover the information you've lost the data or information is incomplete or corrupted. You should periodically review the integrity and completeness of the data you wish to create a copy of.


Online-based tools

See also