If you are worried about what may happen to your data if something were to go wrong with your hardware or operating system, you have likely browsed around to see what backup options are available to you. You’ll find that there are plenty of options and approaches to backing your data up. However, no one answer is best for everyone, so it’s good to understand what works best for your scenario.
There are two major forms of backup that are the same no matter who you are. You have cloud backup, which stores everything online, and you have local tools (applications) to help you keep the data on a separate drive nearby.
For consumers, it’s best to narrow your options down is to figure out which of these best suits you. The easiest way is to ask yourself “how much data needs to be backed up, to begin with?”.
The Cloud
If you don’t have much to backup, then cloud storage could be a major win for you. You can take advantage of free storage offered to you by companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple. There is nothing better to the ears than “free” after all. If the space they offer you isn’t enough, then you can seek out proper cloud-based backup plans. The same companies behind local backup programs like Acronis offer cloud solutions as well, although they are kind of stingy when it comes to storage space. As you can see here, when you buy into their annual plans, you don’t even get cloud storage until you hit the middle plan, and even then it is only 500GB. You can usually get that and more via the free options previously mentioned. The only difference is that those free options usually don’t include automation for such backups. So if you need more than what free has to offer, we generally advise spending a little more and going with a company like CrashPlan since they offer unlimited storage (now that, is worth paying for).
However, this can get dangerous for a few reasons, which brings us to the next choice…
Local Backup
If you really do need that kind of space for backing up your information, then you may want to remain local. There are two reasons for this. For one, if you are backing up crazy amounts of data to the cloud, you are likely going to threaten your ISP’s monthly download/upload quota (cap) and suffer fees on your cable/DSL bill. For two, you can buy a program and a good drive once, and skip the yearly fees until you need to upgrade.
You can pick up an 8TB drive for pretty cheap now, which will hold all sorts of content for you. It should last you quite a while, and then all you need is an application to automate everything for you.
Of course, you could do everything manually by hand, but what’s the fun in all of that labor. Instead, find a good application you can trust to run in the background and handle it all for you. This way, you never have to worry about anything. It’s like a maid that lets her/himself into your house once a month, cleans everything neatly, and locks up on the way out. When something happens (god forbid), then you know your information is there to restore from.
One of our favorite options is Acronis’s True Image software. It is incredibly user-friendly when it comes to an endless amount of features for scheduling and automating your backup requirements. You can even backup across multiple drives. Configure everything to run late at night while you are sleeping and you won’t even notice it bog down your resources any as it is working (unless you’re a night owl). Of course, with applications like these, you find yourself once again faced with yearly or monthly fees to maintain them (similar to Microsoft’s Office suite, where you automatically get the newest version every single year). However, in the case of Acronis at least, they still have a gold old fashion “click here to buy this year’s version and it’s yours to keep” option. They just hide the option from you because they make far more money from subscriptions.
If you noticed the page on Acronis’ site we linked to earlier (this one), you are faced with subscription options. If you already have Acronis installed, the only thing it will ever offer you directly within the program’s trial (or if already coming from a subscription) is to subscribe. However, that page we linked to has a pair of links at the bottom-right of the breakdown of plans, listed as “Looking for Perpetual license?” (“buy” or “upgrade”). These two options are your friend if you just want to buy once, and then pay to upgrade in the future when you and only you decide it is necessary (ie, you like new features being offered 4 or 5 years later). Just click on “buy” and it will lead you to where you can buy a normal license for that year’s version of the software and be done with it.
Final Thoughts
So, understanding how much data you are looking to move makes a huge difference that can really help narrow things down. Many people only care about the more vital information on their PC, which means that many could benefit from taking advantage of the free backup options that are out there. When these free options don’t offer enough to satisfy your data’s hunger, then you can ask yourself the big question to see which direction to go from there.
