Build a backup that would get you through
A plan that survives the five things that genuinely happen — including the one nobody plans for.
A great many people believe they have a backup because their files are in the cloud. The belief holds right up until the morning it does not.
Key points
- Sync copies your mistakes; a backup remembers what came before them
- Three copies, two kinds of place, one of them out of the building
- An always-connected drive is not a spare — being unplugged is a defense
- The commonest disaster is a deletion you made yourself and noticed months later
What to remember
- The disaster that defeats most plans is not fire or theft. It is a deletion you made yourself and noticed months later.
- Three copies, two kinds of place, one out of the building. That rule is called three-two-one.
- A backup nobody has ever restored from is a hope, not a plan.
Try this
Restore one file from wherever you keep a copy — a single photograph will do.
Practice: Build a backup that would get you through. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.