March 31, 2020 | Digital Scrapper News | Volume 18, Issue 13

Hi there!

What is your computer backup plan?
Do you know if your plan is a GOOD plan or a BAD plan?
Keep reading

World Backup Day 2020
World Backup Day is recognized each year on March 31. This annual reminder is the perfect time to take inventory and make sure your bases are covered in the event of a catastrophe.

Yesterday in Community on Facebook I witnessed a lot of good backup plans and I witnessed a lot of bad backup plans. Do you know the difference?

Let me start by sharing my recipe for backing up.

My Perfect Recipe for Backing Up
This is the base for my personal backup plan:

• One external hard drive sitting on my desk.
• One online backup subscription.

Both of these things are automatically backing up my data at least once a day. Let’s take a look at them individually.

3 Things You Need to Know About External Hard Drives (EHD)

• Get a good one (or 2 or 3) – you get what you pay for!
• Set it to automatically backup at least 1x/day.
• Have a backup plan for your EHD. They fail!

The great thing about external hard drives (EHD) is, they are multi-versatile, especially if you have more than one computer.

The EHD that sits on my desk is set to contain a minute-by-minute snapshot of my main computer. At any time of the day or night, I can grab it and go — scrapbooking with my laptop on the road or at the kitchen table. I’m not restricted to my desk!

Also, my EHD is a backup plan for my online subscription.

So, which external hard drive should you buy? My advice — pick the one with the best reviews on Amazon. I personally have all My Passport drives. I love them.

3 Things You Need to Know About Online Backup Subscriptions

• Consider this an insurance policy on your data. It’s for emergencies!
• Set it to automatically backup at least 1x/day.
• Your EHD is your backup plan for your online subscription.

So, what’s the best subscription? My advice — choose one that’s reputable and cheap and syncs your files automatically while you sleep.

The top 3 online backups as of 2020 are:

• iDrive Personal,
• BackBlaze,
• and Acronis True Image.

I currently use Carbonite (it’s #4 in the list I found) because of its reputation. But I try and reevaluate my choice every year.

The Worst Backup Plan
Whatever you do, please, just don’t do nothing. The worst plan is no plan, but here are a couple other bad ideas.

• No Plan. This is the very worst backup plan.
• Thumb Drives. These are only meant for temporary storage. These will eventually fail you, most commonly by corrupting your files. They are also very easy to lose!
• 1 External Drive Only. External hard drives, even the best ones, are not infallible. These should always be used as part of a plan, not the only plan.

Join In Our World Backup Day Discussion on Facebook
We have a backup plan poll in Community on Facebook. Come and take the poll and tell us what YOUR plan is. You might be the person to start inspiring someone to start backing up today.

That’s all for this week. Love and creative success,

Jen White
DigitalScrapper.com
QwikLearn.Teachable.com

 
P.S. I am not affiliated with any of the websites or companies or brands mentioned in this newsletter. My recommendations are based on research I’ve found on the web and my own personal experience.
 

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