Use the 3-2-1 Rule to Back up All Your Important Files.
Whether you’re going back to old photos, watching videos, or browsing through files from years past, you might one day be disappointed when those memories disappear forever, either because you didn’t back them up or your only backup was destroyed in the process.
I know I’ve been terrible at keeping track of my media files, as I’ve upgraded computers and phones over the years and lost quite a few photos, videos, and documents along the way, either due to misplaced or corrupted external drives, or simply because I forgot to back them up.
Here’s how to ensure your data is available for years to come.
You need multiple backups of your data.
One approach to data backup is the 3-2-1 strategy , which states that you should keep three copies of your data in two different locations, one of which should be located outside your office (in case a disaster happens at your home).
A simple example: you have photos and files on your computer, regularly backed up to both an external hard drive and cloud storage. This means three copies of your data, one on your computer and one in a remote cloud storage service. The latter satisfies the “remote storage” requirement because it is geographically separated from the other two copies.
This approach protects against single points of failure, such as the failure of the primary device, the loss of an external hard drive, or a cloud account lockout. When backing up data, redundancy is crucial.
As Reddit users point out , there are varying interpretations of the “3-2-1” rule, such as whether your working copy on your primary device counts as one of the three, while the single off-site copy counts as both. While the strict “3-2-1” strategy or its variations is more commonly used at the enterprise level than by individual users, it can be considered a general guideline for improving your backup system, especially if you don’t have one at all.
How to set up backup
You never know when a device might fail, so it’s a good idea to schedule frequent backups, whether you regularly sync your data to the cloud or set reminders to manually download updates to an external hard drive.
Many users automatically sync their devices with services like iCloud or Google Drive, but using them as your only backup storage doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to access all of your files in the future.
As HowtoGeek notes , these backups typically reflect the current state of your device, not its previous versions. Therefore, when you delete a photo, file, or folder from your computer or phone, it is also deleted from cloud storage. This is convenient for quick access and for restoring on a new device or after a factory reset, but it’s useless for numerous media files accumulated over the years and not used daily.
You can use a dedicated cloud backup service, such as IDrive or Backblaze , which offer large storage capacities for automatic, full device backups. This may be the optimal solution for users with large files or a large amount of media required for work, as well as for those who value data privacy. (However, Wirecutter notes that most online backup services leave much to be desired.) Others may find it sufficient to manually move files and media to free or inexpensive cloud storage services, including iCloud, OneDrive, and Google.
At a minimum, one additional backup should be stored on an external hard drive. If you don’t plan to create cloud backups, consider using two external drives in different locations. Obviously, hardware can be lost, stolen, damaged, or simply fail over time, so again, don’t rely on a single drive to store all your data. Apple’sTime Machine and Windows File History make it easy to save backups to an external drive.