The Importance Of Data Backups

Written by: Jay H.

What would happen if your computer’s files were suddenly deleted? Would you be able to recover them from a backup? If not, you seriously need to consider creating a backup of your files, especially if you have invaluable data you cannot afford to lose. We cannot express the importance of data backups enough.

Threats Are Everywhere

You could lose your files suddenly for several reasons. For example:

• Ransomware or other malware could infect your computer and encrypt your data. If you don’t have a backup, you may have your files erased or have to pay a ransom for the hacker to release them (which isn’t even guaranteed).
• Buggy updates could accidentally delete your files. Windows 10 has had multiple instances of users’ files being deleted by problematic updates.
• Your hard drive could fail, taking your files with it as well. Although there are systems designed to provide warnings about breaking hard drives, they don’t always work.
• A power surge or lightning strike could destroy your computer’s hardware.
• Your laptop could get stolen or broken.
• You could accidentally delete or overwrite an important file.

Despite all the threats to their data, many people do not perform regular backups of their files. These people could lose their data at any time and be unable to recover it. So, understand the importance of data backups and protect your files.

How to Back Up Data Using File History in Windows 10

File History is a built-in backup tool in Windows 10. Use the following steps to back up your data easily:

• Connect an external hard drive to your computer.
• Open Settings from your Start menu, then from there, go to Update & Security > Backup.
• Click Add a drive and select the drive you want to use for backing up your data. The Automatically back up my files option will be turned on and Windows will back up your files whenever you connect the drive to your computer.

• Select More options to configure how often File History backs up your files, how long it keeps your files, and which files to backup. By default, File History will back up data from your Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Roaming folders. You can select Add a folder to choose another folder to add and use the Remove button to take out any folders you do not want to be backed up.
  • You can also use the Exclude these folders section to stop specific subfolders from backing up.
• To use a different drive for backing up, click Stop using drive. Your backups on your old drive will not be deleted, but Windows can only back up one drive at a time.
• If you wish to restore files from a previous backup, select More Options from the Backup settings page and click Restore files from a current backup. You can then view your backups and restore whichever files or folders you select.

Keep Your Data Safe

Protect your invaluable data from being lost forever. We offer managed IT services, including daily backups, to ensure that your data remains safe. Also, in the event of data loss, we provide rapid disaster recovery to minimize downtimes and get your business running again quickly. So, use our data protection solutions to reduce the costs, downtime, and headaches associated with data loss.

Check out more cybersecurity topics.