Are You SURE Your Computer Backup is Saving What You Want?

Suppose you are in the minority of people who actually back up their personal computers in an eAort to prevent losing contents that are most important to them – whatever they may be. Most people believe that by simply backing up their computers, they will accomplish that objective, and while at one time that was true, because of cloud storage, it is no longer the case. This is where things get interesting. What seems to be on your computer is often, in fact elsewhere, and if it is not on the computer, it can’t be backed up from there.

Before we discuss what you can do to actually save the files you want to save in a backup, we have to address “cloud storage”. There are many services oAering cloud storage such as OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, and iCloud, to name just a few. All oAer largely the same benefits and have the same shortcomings. The way that cloud storage most often works is that the user can pick one of three diAerent configurations – and this part is important! The first configuration is to store everything locally (on the computer) and synchronize with the cloud as well as any of your other devices that have access to that cloud storage account (e.g. a phone, tablet or diAerent computer). For the sake of doing backups, this is best – more on that later, but with respect to storage, it takes up the most space on the hard drive of your computer. The next configuration is to store everything online, or in the cloud. In this way, all of the files appear on your computer, but they are simply shortcuts (sometimes known as pointers) to the actual files, which are not physically on the computer. When attempting to access one of these shortcuts on your computer, the file is quickly downloaded to the computer from the cloud and then opens. If it has not been accessed within a certain time period – let’s say two weeks, it is moved oA the computer again, but the shortcut remains and the actual file is once again exclusively in the cloud. So in this case, the disadvantage is that you don’t have access to the file without an Internet connection, but the reason this is the most common configuration is it takes up the least amount of space on your computer’s hard drive. The third configuration is a hybrid of the first two, where some files are stored locally on the machine while others only show up as shortcuts and are actually stored in the cloud. Naturally this comes with a mix of pros and cons as well. To summarize:

Configuration 1: all files are stored locally on the machine and sync’d to the cloud Configuration 2: only shortcuts to files are on the machine and actual files are in the cloud

Configuration 3: some files are stored locally whereas others are in the cloud

In recent years, there has been a push toward cloud storage. In many respects this is a good thing. It oAers great convenience wherein, any file that is within the cloud folder on your computer can be accessed from any of your devices that have access to that cloud storage account. A real-life example of that, in plain English goes like this: Let’s say I’m sitting at my oAice using MS-Word to write this article on my work computer. I don’t have time to finish writing the article, but I save it in OneDrive or DropBox or the cloud storage service of my choice. Later this evening, I’m at home and I find I have a little extra time. I can get on my computer at home, open up the document, see where I left oA at work, and continue to work. Then tomorrow, I’m having lunch with a friend and talking about this article that I’m writing. He asks if he can see it. I pull out my smartphone, which has an app for OneDrive or DropBox or whatever I’ve saved it in, and I can pull up the article for him to peruse. That’s very convenient, but it does come at a cost.

There is a down side to cloud storage. Many people, after seeing that they can access the same file on multiple devices (such as both home and work computers as described above), are confident that their files are backed up since they appear in multiple locations, when in fact they are not. The problem is, cloud storage is a synchronization tool, which is much diAerent than a backup. If I go home tonight and accidentally delete my article, tomorrow when I try to pull it up on my work computer, it will also have been deleted there, because it synchronized that deletion. An article can be rewritten and certain files can be recreated, but when it comes to things like pictures and videos, some very unfortunate situations can arise by the lack of understanding of what cloud storage really is. That is why it is so important to understand where your files actually are, how they can be accessed and potentially deleted, and making sure you have a backup plan that actually works.

For the past several years, Microsoft has done something that, in my opinion, puts the average person’s data in jeopardy. Their oAering, OneDrive, comes standard with all of their recent operating systems. When initially setting up your computer, the user can easily click through a setup where the items on the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders are stored in OneDrive (in the cloud) which means those folders are Configuration 2 above – they are not actually on the computer, though you do see shortcuts to them. Let’s say you want to back up your documents and pictures to an external hard drive, so you either drag

and drop or use a backup program that copies them from the computer to the external hard drive. The problem is they are not on the computer in the first place, so on the external hard drive, all you will have backed up are your shortcuts. Those pictures and documents are in jeopardy of being lost. That is not to say that the pictures and documents cannot be backed up, but what could have been a relatively simple thing to do is now a more complex process. Another example is a smartphone. In almost every case, cloud storage apps on smartphones and tablets are Configuration 2 due to space limitations. On your computer, recall that you cannot back up a file that is not there, and backing up a shortcut to a file gives you nothing – it's the actual file that needs to be backed up.

So now, armed with the information we have about where your important files might be, we can talk about a strategy to make sure you’re able to back up all of your important files. There is by no means only one way to accomplish this, and although it’s somewhat complex, we will go through what I consider to be the easiest way to achieve this. I will illustrate it through an example.

Suppose that you have a computer at work, a computer at home, a smart phone and a tablet. You’re using DropBox for cloud storage and able to access your files from all of your devices. The first thing you need to do is make sure that one of your computers has a large hard drive, which will oAer plenty of disk space. On that computer (it is not necessary to do this with your other devices), you need to set Dropbox to Configuration 1 discussed above. Namely, all of your cloud storage files need to be stored locally on that machine. In doing so, when you back up that computer, you will be able to back up all of the files that are also stored in the cloud. Then it’s a matter of backing up your computer, and once you have done that, whatever you’ve set to back up, including all files from your cloud storage service will be physically backed up.

Though it is beyond the scope of this article, there are several ways to back up a computer. For example, you can do a complete backup each time you run a program. You can run what is known as an incremental backup where the first time it runs a complete backup and thereafter it only changes additions, deletions and modifications, you can drag and drop files, thereby doing a backup, and there are other options as well. The most important thing is to have an archival feature. Think of that as a way to save you from yourself. The way it works is: when you delete a file on the computer, in the backup, while it is deleted from it’s original location, it is also copied into an archive folder, so what actually happens

is that in the backup, the file is moved. That way the backup continues to resemble what is on the computer, but if you deleted a file two weeks ago and discovered today that you actually need it, you simply go into the archive folder on the backup and find the file. THAT is a true backup.

The last thing to consider when backing up files on your computer is how much you are willing to lose. This will dictate how frequently you run your backups. For example, if you feel that losing a week’s worth of work is acceptable, you only need to run a backup once a week and in doing so, are only subject to potentially losing up to a week’s worth of work.

In summary, the only way to prevent losing files on your computer that are important to you is to back your computer up. But that is not a simple thing since often, the files you would like to save are not necessarily all on your computer. That is why you need to understand where the files physically reside, and make sure that you know how to access them. Once you ensure all of your important files are physically on your computer, you can initiate and maintain a backup scheme and know with confidence that your most important files are not likely to be lost no matter what happens to your computer.

Eytan Murray Rodin, a St. Louis, MO native, is the founder and owner of Computer Problem Busters, a company that specializes in data loss prevention and data recovery but also performs routine computer repairs. He is also the founder and owner of Backups Matter, inventor of The CopycatTM – It’s the world’s easiest way to back up your computer.