World Backup Day: Five recommendations

Especially in times of increased home office, one should create regular backups. On March 31, once again the World Backup Day five recommendations from Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH:

1. Spring cleaning: Before any major backup action, a major cleanup should always be on the agenda, i.e. the computer must be freed from unnecessary data ballast. This includes applications that are no longer used, inactive or fragmented data, and temporary files. Download history and cookies should also be deleted. In addition to increasing the available storage space, this also simplifies and speeds up backup processes.
2. Backup strategy: It is important to define a backup strategy. Above all, a user must determine how and how often to back up. Further decisions concern the selection of storage locations and media, such as the use of external hard disks or a cloud backup. Setting up automatic backups with the definition of times and intervals for the backups can also be a sensible step.
3. Full backup versus incremental backup: In any case, PC users should perform a full backup from time to time. These should be supplemented by regular incremental backups, in which only the data that has changed since the last full backup is backed up.
4. Application of the 3-2-1 principle: In general, it is recommended to back up data according to the 3-2-1 principle. This means that the user should create three copies, use two different storage media - such as an external hard drive and a tape drive - and store a backup version externally "off-site" - for example in the cloud.
5. Data recovery: Finally, the topic of disaster recovery should also be considered, i.e. clarification of the question of how the data stored via backup can be restored in the event of data loss on the computer. The recovery solution used should offer a high degree of flexibility and, for example, support the recovery of files, folders or an entire system. It should also be possible to restore the data to different hardware.

There are numerous backup and recovery solutions on the market, designed to meet a wide range of requirements. When selecting a solution, make sure that the products offer proven quality and cover your own needs. For example, compatibility with your own computer and the available software features should be checked.

Source: Toshiba Electronics Europe

Disconnect external hard drives 

And here's another important tip from Avast: external hard drives should be disconnected after a backup to protect them from malware that could spread from the computer to connected devices.