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We all know we're supposed to back up our data; it's essential for peace of mind. However, one copy of a file on your computer does not constitute a backup. Redundancy, people, redundancy!
As the organizers of World Backup Day note, people produce quadrillions of files each year, yet many fail to take adequate steps to preserve that data. Computers can become infected, and accidents happen—but even after losing important documents, irreplaceable photos, or entire sets of financial records, most of us still don't back up.
The most likely reason is that backing up takes some effort. At least one in five people has never backed up data, according to World Backup Day organizers. But the process is easier than ever. Here's a quick look at the types of backup available and the tools you'll need to pull it off with as little work as possible.
Types of PC Backup
Backing up can be as simple as copying a file from one spot to another—from a hard drive to a removable USB flash drive, for example. But your redundancy, security, and access needs dictate which method you should use.
Select Files and Folders
If you need to back up only specific data, use software that lets you choose which files to save. (Simply moving a file doesn't back it up. You need at least two copies.) To be safe, back up entire folders regularly to ensure that newly created or updated files are backed up. You'll need a secondary drive to back up your main drive.
Windows 10 and Windows 11 prefer to back up files to OneDrive, Microsoft's online backup and synchronization offering (more on that below). However, both still support File History, the same backup and restore tool that has been around since Windows 7. For specifics, read how to back up and restore your files in Windows and how to manage, sync, and share files in OneDrive.
With macOS, use Time Machine. It will back up files and folders to an external drive. For more, read our how-to on backing up your Mac.
Cloud Storage and File-Synchronization Services
(Credit: John Lamb/Getty Images)A must-have for anyone with more than one computer or device, synchronization software ensures you have the same files available on all your PCs and mobile devices. When you change a file, it's automatically sent to all the other PCs using the account, regardless of operating system. It's the ultimate in redundancy. Many would argue this is not true backup, since deletion of a local file is mirrored remotely—so tread carefully.
Big names in the file sync arena include IDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive, the last of which earns a perfect 5 stars in our review. There are many others. All provide a few gigabytes of online storage for free, typically 2GB, but you can increase your storage limit by paying a monthly or yearly fee.
Online Backup Services
We're in the cloud era, so online backup is the norm for important files. Unlike the file-sync option, straight backup products lean toward direct transfer of files from a hard drive to online storage with easy restoration options. These services may use file syncing, but enhanced security is the most important option.
Install online backup software on a PC, tell it which files and folders to back up, and it does the rest in the background. Because storage is online, you can typically read files in a browser and restore them to other systems as needed.
Cloning a Full Disk Image
(Credit: PCMag / DiskGenius)There are several ways to back up an entire hard drive. The first is to use software to copy all the individual files from the drive to another (larger) drive, as described above. This way, you get everything even if you don't need it, plus it's easy to keep up to date and restore specific files as needed.
Another method is to make an image or clone of the drive. A clone replicates all your data—every file and folder, even the programs and system files. It's a true snapshot of the drive at the moment of backup. When used for restoration, the clone overwrites the existing system, and the hard drive reverts to its state at the time of backup.
Cloning is a great way to back up a brand-new computer. Then, if it starts acting wonky, you can revert the drive to its original settings. Keep in mind, however, that this is similar to reverting to factory settings, so the restoration will not include data accumulated after the original imaging. That data should be backed up separately. Yes, you should have two sets of backups running. No one said this was easy.
Do a full-disk-image backup regularly, including data, using software that can read images and selectively pull files for restoration when necessary. You will need a huge backup destination drive to pull this off, typically an external hard drive or storage on your home network.
Third-party software for cloning a drive includes IDrive and Acronis—these offer cloning to supplement their normal file backup. Free options include Clonezilla, Rescuezilla, and DiskGenius (the basis for our story on cloning a drive).
Backup Destinations
(Credit: Jessica Lewis Creative/Pexels.com)How you back up data may depend on the type of media you use as the destination site. Here are some options.
External Drives
Backing up isn't much harder than plugging an external storage drive into your computer. Of course, drives come in all shapes, sizes, and configurations. A standard drive won't cost much, but it just sits there; you do all the work. Almost all drives today use connectors such as USB Type-A 3.0 or USB-C for fast transfer rates.
Your biggest decision will be whether to use a hard drive or a faster, more expensive external solid-state drive (SSD). Unlike hard drives, SSDs have no moving parts. That means fantastic performance, which is a big plus when you've got a lot of data to copy.
For more, check out SSD vs. HDD: What's the Difference? If you're unsure how to pick, read The Best M.2 Solid-State Drives and How to Copy Your Windows Installation to an SSD.
CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs
The old backup standby is copying files to an optical disc. The downsides are limited capacity and speed. Also, it's harder than ever to find computers with CD drives. You can buy one to plug in; Amazon has some for less than $30 that connect via USB-A 3.0.
CD-Recordables (CD-Rs) can hold only 700MB of data. A DVD-R is better, with a storage capacity of 4.7GB, but even 8.5GB dual-layer DVD-R discs probably won't hold your entire music and photo collection. Dual-layer Blu-ray discs (BD-Rs) store up to 50GB, but their prices fluctuate. Years ago, we found a 50-disc spindle for $25, but they go for closer to $90 these days.
Even at that capacity, backing up to discs will feel interminably slow compared with fast SSDs and flash drives. And who wants to swap discs in and out all the time?
The upsides: Discs are super portable and let you keep your data backup offsite. If a disaster should take out your computer, it can't destroy what isn't there.
USB Flash Drives
Small USB drives are almost as inexpensive as optical discs, even as their capacity increases. They have the advantage of being ultraportable—maybe too portable since they're easy to lose (and steal). But locking one multi-gigabyte flash drive in a safe deposit box is easier than storing discs or hard drives. Some USB drives are even designed for protection from the elements, making them a safer destination for your data.
Of course, you need the largest-capacity drive to back up everything, especially if you'll be imaging your full storage drive. It's worth the cost for the convenience, and the cost isn't bad.
Flash drives that use modern USB-C ports typically cost around $30 for 128GB of storage. Prices drop as capacities scale up: Samsung's Extreme Pro Flash Drive with USB-C (above) goes from 512GB for $125 (24 cents per gigabyte) to 2 terabytes for $309 (15 cents per gigabyte).
Network Attached Storage (NAS)
A network-attached storage (NAS) device, sometimes called a home server, is data storage that lives on your network so all users can access files and media. These devices aren't always cheap, and some don't even include built-in storage—you have to purchase drives separately. But NAS boxes have become increasingly easy to work with.
NAS can do a lot more than back up a few files. Many of these devices can back up multiple computers in a home or office. Streaming media from a NAS to a device such as a game console or smartphone is commonplace, as is sharing files across a network and out to the internet, making your NAS a web server.
Most NAS boxes feature FTP, remote access, security controls, and different RAID configurations that determine how your data is stored (redundantly or across drives). Some have multiple Ethernet and USB ports; most support Wi-Fi. Some capture input from networked video cameras. The options seem endless, so shop around to get the right one for your home or office.
You can't go wrong with our top-rated NAS brands, Asustor and Synology. The latter consistently wins our Readers' Choice Award for NAS manufacturers.
The Cloud
(Credit: IDrive)We covered cloud storage above, but it bears repeating, as the cloud is the future (and the present) of backup. The cloud refers to online storage. Sometimes, it's used by a service such as Google Drive to store your data. It can be straightforward storage space provided by large or small companies such as our Editors' Choice favorite, IDrive, which lets you back up multiple devices to 10GB of cloud storage for free or for a fee you can pick a range from 100GB (25 cents per month, which is 2.5 cents per gigabyte) to 50TB ($811.99 per month, so 1.6 cents per gigabyte).
Cloud-based direct-PC backup is not new. Carbonite and competitors have been around for decades, providing direct backup of your computer files to the internet, usually in the background.
If you have only a few small files to store and a Google/Gmail account, stick with Google Drive. You get 15GB of free space across all your Google services; the next tier, Google One, is 100GB for $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year (around 20 cents per GB per year) and scales to 2TB for $99.99 per year (5 cents per GB per year). Use Google Drive for desktop to set up all the backup and sync features.
What to Back Up
It might seem sufficient to point your backup software to your documents, pictures, videos, and music, and let it do its thing. And it can be, as long as you're diligent about storing your data in the right places on your drives. Even so, you should consider backing up other types of data.
Browsers
(Credit: Firefox/PCMag)Don't lose carefully cultivated browser bookmarks or favorites. Major browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge, have built-in backup—as long as you have accounts with Mozilla, Google, or Microsoft, respectively. The browsers back up data such as bookmarks, history, add-ons, and even open tabs in some cases, then sync it across browsers and computers.
To find the sync settings in Firefox, type about:preferences#sync into the address bar; on Chrome, type chrome://settings/syncSetup; and on Edge, type edge://settings/profiles.
When using a web-based email system such as Gmail or Outlook.com, backing up your email may not seem like much of an issue—it's all in the cloud. What could go wrong? Well, even big companies have outages or get hacked. Just ask Facebook. Or Microsoft. If your messages are mission-critical, you should back up occasionally.
You can use Google Takeout for Gmail. Microsoft's Outlook.com doesn't let you export, but a third-party product, such as eM Client (free for non-commercial use, $39.95 per year for Personal), can access Gmail and Outlook.com and run automatic backups.
You might prefer using client software such as Outlook with Microsoft Office 365, but the backup situation is more complicated. You'll have to back up the Personal Storage Table (PST) file. Microsoft provides full instructions.
Perhaps the best option is to use Outlook software with a web-based service that stores your email on the server. That could be Outlook.com or Gmail, or a work account via Exchange Server or IMAP. Then, your messages are stored in the cloud but also in an Outlook Data File (OST)—which, again, you can back up separately.
Drivers
When hardware peripherals are attached to your computer, you have drivers—the software that lets your PC talk to graphics cards, printers, scanners, and other devices. If you haven't done a disk image, back up your current drivers.
You may have to rummage through manufacturers' websites to grab drivers during a PC restore. That might be the better option. Then, you'll have the most up-to-date drivers, all digitally signed and from the proper source. It takes longer, but it may benefit your PC and you in the long run.
Social Networks
(Credit: Facebook/PCMag)It may seem weird to back up info you don't keep on your hard drive, but do you trust X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and the rest to never suffer a catastrophic data loss? Be prepared. You can't exactly use backups to restore these platforms to online use, but having a redundant copy for your records is better than risking losing it all.
To get your Facebook data, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Privacy > Your Facebook Information > Download your information on the desktop. Click Request a Download. When it's ready (it may take awhile), it'll appear under the Available Copies tab.
X is similar: Go to your account settings on your desktop browser. Under Your Account, click Download an archive of your data. You'll be emailed a link to the full file of all your tweets and uploaded pics. You can do this only every 30 days.
On Instagram on mobile, go to your profile, tap the hamburger menu on the top right, and select Your activity > Download your information > Download or transfer information. Instagram will then email you a link to a file with photos, comments, profile information, and more. This could take up to 30 days, depending on how much content you have on your account.
To get all your TikTok videos, click Profile in the mobile app, use the three-line hamburger menu to go to Settings and Privacy (on the desktop, click your avatar and select Settings), then Account > Download your data. This can take days to process when you have a lot of videos on the service, and once it's available to download, you have just four days to grab it.