Backups of your files are put in place for a scenario that you hope you never have to use. The problem with doing a backup is, you should never rely on a single means to keep a copy of your data. This is because the one day you can guarantee you need to use it due to an issue with the PC, the storage medium has broken/corrupted, or is no longer where you last put it.

Scenario

You’re using your computer one day and all of a sudden, it cuts out and won’t power back on. Your mind flicks to “did I save my document?” before soon realising the PC will not turn back on and then you realise – “did I BACKUP my documents?! I had some REALLY important stuff on that computer!”

Keeping your data safe should be a priority as unfortunately, even in this day and age, computers breaking is still a very real thing and could happen to anyone, at any time.

When the computer has been repaired or replaced, you can just hook it up to your cloud storage or backup medium and look at that, your data!

All you have to do now is copy and paste your data back to where it was before and you’re back in action!

BUT! This does not mean stop backing up! This experience just proved to you how important copies of your data are. So keep up the good work and ensure you have backups from now onwards!

But, TeamGeek, what should I backup?

When backing up your data, you only really need to consider important files. It is worth backing up:

• Documents,
• Pictures,
• Videos,
• Desktop files (not so much the program icons).

These will be the files that you require on the day-to-day and panic about if something goes wrong. There is no need to back up programs as they will need to be reinstalled on the computer anyway when it is repaired or replaced, and therefore would be a waste of storage space on your backup mediums.

Solution

The 3-2-1 backup principle stipulates that you should always consider 3 backups, on 2 separate Storage Mediums, with 1 being located offsite.

For the average person, this may be:

1. A copy of the data on your PC.
2. A copy of the data on an external hard drive or Network Attached Storage (NAS) stored somewhere in the property
3. A copy of the data on an external hard drive stored at a family or friend’s house, or even in your drawer at work.

Why do my backup mediums need to be kept off-site AND on-site?

On-site backups are quick because they can be restored as quickly as the storage mediums they’re on. This means it is effective for getting you back to work as soon as possible. However, let’s say that the worse happens and there is a house fire or geological phenomenon like a hurricane or flooding that destroys the media. The off-site media means you should always have a copy of your data even if the worst does happen, allowing you to recover and get back to work as soon as possible.

TeamGeek’s offering

At TeamGeek, we enact this principle for our customers:

1. First, a copy of your data is on your PC. This can be considered a backup from OneDrive and Cloud backups as if either of these fails, your computer still holds your information
2. The second copy of your data is synced to OneDrive in real time to ensure your data always has redundancy and version history throughout the day
3. An off-site, cloud backup of your data is performed nightly to keep a further copy of redundancy.

From this you can see that your data is kept in 3 separate places, allowing for 3 single points of failure before any data is considered unretrievable.

I want one! What do I do?

Glad you like the setup! The next step is simply to email hello@teamgeek.co.uk and we will get back to you with a quote for the hardware, setup, and our TeamGeek One Support Pack.