Backup to HDD

The easiest way to secure data from loss is to back them up to a separate folder on your HDD, which you won't touch during everyday work. In case of an accidental deletion of important files, you'll easily restore them from a backup and instantly return to work. In essence, the process of storing backup to HDD can take four forms:

• Back up to local HDD folders
• Back up to external hard drives
• Back up to network shared folders
• Back up to remote computer drives, accessible via FTP

Let us discuss pros and cons of each of them.

Backups located in a local folder provide adequate protection of files against user mistake. If you have them, you can always undo unwanted changes, or even go on working with the copy instead of a corrupted file. However, from dangers that threaten HDD as a whole, such as physical drive failure, or viruses, local backups can't save.

External HDDs have a higher level of data security, than local ones. They can have large capacity, they are light, transportable, and convenient (especially if we take USB backup devices). There is only one disadvantage: in order to return to work quickly, this HDD backup must be kept besides the computer, which leaves the data unprotected from such disasters as fires, floods, or theft of equipment.

Backups copied to network drives are even more secure, as they are kept in distance and don’t need to be kept near the main computer for restoration. However, the easiness of working with shared folders is darkened with security questions: it may fit perfectly for home networks, yet for more complex tasks it is recommended to use specialized data transferring protocols (more reliable and secure).

At last, there are backups stored to offsite servers, transferred through FTP or its protected alternatives (SFTP, FTPS and other). Physically, backups are stored on HDDs of distant computers and provide high level of data protection from any disasters at your site. They have only one disadvantage related to the very data transferring: offsite backup services (and, basically, the Internet connection itself) costs money.

We recommend that you try out Handy Backup - it's the utility we produce that is capable of all the four options and much more!