Why Do I Need a Backup Plan?

A backup strategy is to computer owners what a fire insurance policy is like for a home owner. The analogy is that if a disaster or accident occurs, you don't loose everything. And computer data loss is far more likely to happen than your home is to catch on fire. This analogy is not perfect, as a backup plan for a computer restores exactly what you had, while a fire insurance policy does not restore everything, some memories and treasures are irreplaceable. This is intended to be a call to action. Very few home owners do not insure their homes, but many computer owners do not back up their computers. Backing up a computer is to many people similar to putting out the garbage, not one of your favorite things to do. Don't wait for a computer crash before you think about your backup plan!

A new computer owner could say to themselves that they have very little that is important on their computer, so if it fails, I just start again. But after you have been using a computer for a while you build up useful data on the computer that would take many hours or days to re-create, and if it includes storing digital photographs you could not replace them at all. It does not take most people very long to have so much data on the computer that the idea of starting again without any of your data is a painful idea. So if that is you, please keep reading.

New computer users need to realize that data on a computer is not the same as a pen and notebook, it is more fragile. The information is usually stored magnetically on a very small area that if magnetic fields were visible, you would need a microscope to view it. Some data is stored as a charge of electrons on a capacitor, and that is stored in an even smaller space. Most user's data storage is done on a hard drive which stores it magnetically. This technique has been in use for about 50 years, and it is still getting better. But a hard drive has mechanical components, including a motor and bearings thus eventually it will wear out or fail. A hard drive is manufactured to very tight tolerances, which are required to fit so much data into a small space. There is very little room for wear before it no longer works properly.

The data is made robust and permanent by storing redundant copies of the data. Data is also checked each time it is read out of memory or from a hard drive, and ECC (Error Correction Codes) is used to correct for a single bit errors when they occur. This corrects for minor read errors a byte or 32 or 64 bits at a time, invisible to the user. The error correction greatly improves data reliability of both the memory inside your computer, and the data stored on your hard drives. A backup strategy makes a duplicate of your data on the hard drive so that if something happens to the original, an identical copy can be used to replace the damaged or lost data.
If you use a computer for long enough, eventually you will encounter a situation where you wish you had a backup plan in place. There are many things that can go wrong, and will cause you to loose your data if you don't have a backup. If you have a small business, the absence of such a plan may become catastrophic.

Many, probably most home computer users learn the importance of backups the hard way. They loose their data due to accidental erasure, or due to a hard disk failure and then they realize with regret that the information has been lost. The next step they take is to ask how can I prevent this happening again. It is far better to set up a system to back up your data before the first loss occurs.

For these reasons and others we have not mentioned, the best cure is the preventative measure of having backups for your data. The operating system and the programs could be re-installed from the original disks, but the data may not be replaceable. To protect your application data a backup is the best defense against painful or catastrophic data loss.

There are a number of ways to accomplish backups, depending on your situation and the amount of data that could be at risk. The following is an outline of most of the strategies available, listed in order of increasing protection:

If you are among the 1.5% of people who connect to the Internet using the older Windows XP operating system, or Vista then use the iDrive commercial program instead of "ntbackup.exe", the backup utility supplied with Windows XP. If you have a FAT file system, you will have issues with automatic backup programs not being able to back up certain files.

The rest of this page will assume you are using Windows 7 or 10. Windows 10 calls the built in software "backup and restore Windows 7", and similar software with a different name is included in Windows 7 and Windows 8. For brevity I will refer to this software as "Windows 7 Backup"

If you have a MAC, buy an external USB drive at least twice the capacity of your Mac's hard drive or SSD and turn on Time Machine and choose the external drive as the location of your backups. Once a week connect the external drive to your Mac for 1/2 hour and then eject it and put it in a safe place.

• Put a copy of each important file onto a USB Flash drive each time that it is changed. You can use File Explorer to do the copy.
• Use Winzip or other compression program to compress and encrypt your data, then write it to a USB flash drive. This permits more data to be stored on one device, and it permits keeping it private.
• Use the Windows 7 Backup program included with Windows. Use it to do both full and incremental backups to files, and then and write the files to a CD, DVD. If you have more than one computer on a network, then you can direct the backup to a drive on a different computer.
• Install a 2nd hard drive, and use a disk shadowing program to automatically copy all of your data to a 2nd drive. This provides a fast recovery for hard disk failure, but a virus attack, ransomware or deliberate or accidental erasure will destroy data on the backup as well.
• Use Windows 7 Backup, and write the backup files to a removable USB hard drive, and store that hard drive in a different building. This can also be a USB Flash drive if it is big enough.
• Use a NAS drive (Network Attached Storage), an always on hard drive that has its own IP address and plugs directly into your network, and use backup software to do automatic backups to this NAS drive. This eliminates the need to have a 2nd computer, or have it on at the right times. It can be located in a closet or basement, or concealed to make it unlikely to be found by thieves. A few models offer wireless connectivity, and are so even easier to hide.
• Use Windows 7 Backup to make an image (an identical copy) to an external USB hard drive, and store it in a different building in between use. Even better is to have two drives dedicated to the purpose, alternating so one backup is always in a different building. For dial-up Internet users, this is the best strategy.
• If you have a high speed Internet, use a network backup service such as iDrive, which in the background automatically sends a backup of important files and folders each time they change to a remote storage facility using the Internet. The transfer uses SSL or other form of encryption, so your data is private and secure when moved over the Internet. Some of these services are free for a small amount of data, and you pay a subscription fee for larger amounts of data. For personal use, and when there are not a lot of digital photographs to backup this may be free and give the best protection. Even if you have to pay a subscription fee, once these are setup up they are completely automatic.

For Windows 10 use "Windows 7 backup" to create a whole disk image, and use a commercial program iDrive to do backups to its cloud servers, and use it to do a file history style backup to a local hard drive which is turned off except when you need to do a backup, or to a NAS device.

Software for Backup

For Windows XP, Microsoft's ntbackup can backup your data even if it stored in scattered folders on your hard drive, or even on multiple drive. It has a bit of a learning curve, as it is a little quirky. It does not do any compression, so the backup file it produces can be quite large. You can use Winzip to compress the backup to reduce the size of the file so that it takes less space, or can fit onto one DVD or CD. Winzip also can output a compressed file in segments so that it it can fit onto multiple CDs or DVDs when it is too large to fit onto one disk. Ntbackup is free, it is a part of windows. Surprisingly it is not automatically installed when you install Windows XP home edition. The task scheduler, found in the control Panel under "scheduled tasks" is built into Windows. This can be used to start a backup session of ntbackup on a regular basis. This is not very user friendly! There are 3rd party tools that are easier to use than ntbackup, some free and some must be purchased. Some brands of external USB hard drives come with software to backup to the external hard drive.

Windows Vista has a better backup software built into all versions except for Vista Starter and Windows Vista Home Basic. Assuming you have Home premium or better, there is an improved version which is designed to have very few options, to be user friendly. It can do complete backups that can be transferred onto new hardware, if your computer fails. This capability did not exist in Windows XP. To begin, Open Backup and Restore Center by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Backup and Restore Center. Then Click Back up files, and then follow the steps in the wizard. We recommend backing up to an external USB hard drive. Two useful references are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_and_Restore and http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2006/11/06/file-backup-in-windows-vista-faq.aspx .

Windows 7, 8 and 10 and later have a much better backup system built in, which is easier to use than Vista's built-in tools! To set up a backup in Windows 7 open up Computer right-click on your local drive and select Properties.  Then click on the Tools tab and click the Back up now button. An online detailed guide to the backup software can be found here. I recommend this tools for an image backup only. I recommend a commercial program called iDrive for a versioned backup of user files. It is much better than the "File History" that is included in Windows 10. It can do backups to both the cloud and to a local hard drive. If you are on a limited or very slow Internet connection backup use iDrive to backup everything to a local drive and backup selected mission critical files to the cloud.

What Kind of Drive is Best to Store My Backups?

The CD-R and DVD-R are both read-only once they have been programmed (burned). This means you have a long term copy of the state of your files that you can keep for years. This has the benefit of retrieving an older version of some data, or something that you accidentally erased a while ago, and did not notice until today. You can take them to another location and leave them there, to gain protection against a fire or other natural disaster, and you don't need to bring them back to do the next backup. The down side of these is that there is an extra step to doing the burning, and sometimes the burning fails and you have to do it again. Also if the amount of data that you backup exceeds the size of one disk, this requires more effort to complete the task. This approach is fading in popularity due to the limited size of the disk and the inconvenience of handling and labeling disks.

A hard drive inside a 2nd computer offers a more convenient backup, and more reliable if the 2nd computer is always running. This can be fully automated if both computers are always running at a specific time. The down side to this method is that it provided no protection from fire, theft or other natural disasters, since both computers are at the same location.

A NAS drive which is always on offers a very convenient place to store your backups, and is a good idea if you don't have a 2nd networked computer. It still does not provide protection against fire and natural disasters, since it is co-located with the computer that is being backed up.

A USB external portable hard drive is fast, has a large capacity and is easy to transport. It's large capacity allows you to make a full backup or image of your entire computer, or at least drive C: so that you restore your applications and operating system from it if required. This method would occasionally make a complete image, and on a regular basis make a backup of your user data. The only weakness in this approach is that you need to remember to bring it back from your remote location on the day that you do your backups.

A USB Flash drive is slower than a USB hard drive, but very easy to transport. You could keep it in a purse or briefcase to provide many of the benefits of an off-site location, such as protection against fire and theft. However this is not big enough to store an image of your entire drive C: and it may only hold a few backup sessions before you have to erase an older backup to make room.

A web site or Internet Storage gives you protection against fire and theft and other natural disasters. Professionals make duplicate (redundant) copies of your data so that if one computer or disk drive fails they have a shadow copy to restore your data, and so nothing is lost if a hardware failure occurs. This is not a practical solution if you don't have an always connected high speed connection, but for those that do this can be the most reliable and secure method to do backups. It can be fully automatic so that once setup it operates without any effort on your part. I recommend iDrive as one of the best available and up to 5.5Gbytes of data can be stored at no charge.

 

For the technically more advanced people who own a web site, here is a hint! You can use some of your unused space on your hosting company's web server as a home brew Internet Storage facility. You could even purchase a new hosting plan and use it just for this one purpose, and never get a URL for this domain. A new site may cost you as little as $7 a month, and some US companies are as low as $5 a month. You don't need any premium features, only FTP access and a lot of storage allowance. Then you need to find a backup utility that will use FTP or secure FTP for the transfer, encrypt the files for privacy, and tracking the files that are required to be backed up.

Conclusion

The big problem with backups is remembering to take the steps that make the process work. One that is fully automated is the best approach, since it is the one that is most likely to have your data when you need it. It is easy to forget to do routine tasks. The issue with protection against fire and theft may seem minor most of the time, until this happens. Therefore for many people the Internet Online storage is the best approach even if it does require paying a hopefully small monthly fee for such a service. Otherwise a portable USB Hard drive is best for those without a constant high speed connection, particularly if you regularly go to a friend's house or visit with parents or a sibling on a regular basis. You just make swapping one of two USB drives part of the routine.

Ransomware

A more recent and more dangerous threat for small or home based business is the type of malware called ransomware. This encrypts all of your user files and then asks for money to decrypt them. This malware is getting more sophisticated and some versions search for all attached drives that can be reached by the computer they are attacking and encrypt the files on all of the backups as well if they can. This can even extend to backups on some cloud based storage and file synchronizing services.

The best defense is to prevent infection in the first place with good anti-virus software and if infected have a robust set of backup files that ransomware can't alter. You reformat your hard drive to remove the ransomware, and then restore everything from a backup taken just before the attack. Paying the ransom is no guarantee that you will get your files back. A proper plan for backups that can't be compromised by the ransomware is the best defense.

Due to ransomware concerns the days are gone when you could have an onsite backup device that is always on and attached to your computer. This prior approach made backups automatic and so convenient that you forget about them. The main concern they were covering was a hard drive failure. Similarly strategies that permit unrestricted access to your backup devices also makes the backup just as vulnerable as the computer it is intending to protect. Any cloud file storage service that allows writing to or erasing files directly from your computer also inherently permits ransomware to strike your cloud backup as well. Instead you need either a true archiving cloud backup product or a local backup system that ransomware can't defeat.

Regular backups to a local hard drive that is normally turned off or unplugged except for a few minutes a day when files that have changed that day are updated can provide increased protection against your backup also becoming encrypted. However it is not a perfect defense. One weakness is that you do not have up to the minute backups and so you can loose up to one day's work if a ransomware attack occurs. Another is you may forget to plug it in or unplug it.

IDrive is an example of a cloud based true archive system where no direct writes or erasing is permitted and multiple versions of each file are stored. All file erasing has to be done through the software's user interface. Ransomware can corrupt the latest version of each different file, but the previous good version can't be altered. Some other cloud backup services have software that hunts for the patterns of changes made by encryption and shuts down write and erase capabilities. Since with most cloud based backup services which support multiple versions have a limit to the number of versions that they keep, the frequency of the backups needs to be limited to prevent an attack strategy that keeps on changing the files trying to make all the version of each file corrupted copies. If the cloud backup is limit to 4 times a day, then a 30 version system would take a week for the ransomware to wipe out all of the good versions on the cloud. Surely any business would notice they have been attacked by ransomware inside a week and take action to begin recovery or at least turn off the computers until recovery can begin. This means with this setting a 24 hour a day small business can at most loose 1/4 of a days transactions at the start of a ransomware attack.

Another approach is to have a NAS and attach a USB drive or an eSATA drive to the NAS. Your backup software does its backups to the NAS. In the case of Synology NAS you can have scheduled backups of the NAS targeting the NAS's external drive. You can make this external drive appear invisible to the computer and so ransomware can't reach it to disturb the isolated backup drive. You do this by creating a different user only on the NAS just for the purpose of running Hyper Backup. This different user with a very secure random password that owns the files on the backup drive and all other user's are denied any form of access. With this defense in place the ransomware can encrypt files, which will periodically be updated on the NAS and from the NAS onto the external USB drive, but it can't erase backups taken before the ransomware attack started. A point in time before the ransomware attack began is chosen to restore the NAS from the external backup, and the protected computers are then restored from the now clean files on the NAS. The user password chosen for Hyper Backup uses a 48-bit random password and the additional barrier of limiting the number of incorrect password guesses, a brute force dictionary attack is impossibly and all possible values guessing approach would take centuries. This approach has an advantage over the cloud based approaches in that there can be no limit of the number of versions of the number of versions kept, so this can't be a successful vector for an attack. The ransomware can't keep changing a file to cause all of the stored versions of it from being encrypted. Another part of the defense, don't name your NAS something descriptive, such as the make and model of the NAS. Instead make it's network name something inoculous.

There are other considerations, and we can help you decide what is the right fit for your needs.

© 2020 Johnson's Computer Service

HOME |  ABOUT |  SERVICES |  FAQ |  EMAIL US

bondbuilt