Backup & Restore

There are many reasons why data gets lost or operating system installations become unusable. On the one hand, malware can change data or, as with ransomware, make it completely unusable. On the other hand, data can be partially or completely lost without the influence of criminal energy.

Examples of this are unintentional deletion or hardware defects, which sometimes make a data carrier completely unusable. In many cases the recovery of data is either very time-consuming or cost-intensive. In addition, the loss or theft of devices (notebooks, desktop PCs, smartphones, etc.) cannot be ruled out. 

Archiving of data and operating systems

The creation of backups is a simple method to restore operating systems (e.g. Linux, Mac, Windows etc.) to a working state. It is also possible to store documents, images or media content with the help of regular data backup and to have them available again in the event of a loss of the originals.

Location of data backup and storage: Your personal data or operating system files can be backed up at several locations. This can be an internal or external backup. For example, you can store an internal backup on a hard disk built into the device you are using. You have various options for an external backup. On the one hand, it is possible to connect an external hard disk to your device and save the backup on it. In addition, back-ups to external storage media such as CD, DVD or Blu-ray are conceivable for archiving. On the other hand, you also have the option to create a so-called online backup. Online backups can simply be loaded into a cloud environment at your provider (e.g. Amazon-AWS-Cloud, Apple iCloud, IBM-Cloud, Microsoft OneDrive etc.).

Access protection: Depending on the type of archiving method you choose, you should consider securing the transfer process and protecting the backup copy itself. This means that, depending on what data you store when creating backups, you should also encrypt these backups appropriately and choose a protected transmission path (e.g. https connections for cloud services). This makes it more difficult or prevents unauthorized access to your data. 

Procedure

Backup under Windows: Under Windows, you often have the following options for creating a backup copy: a system image backup (also image), the backup of data or a system restore point, and the file version history.

The system image backup is very extensive and creates a complete 1:1 image of your stored data and the operating system. A data backup includes the storage of your content (images, documents, music, videos, etc.). When you set a system restore point, Windows backs up relevant data to restore the system to this saved state. To prevent data loss, the file version history allows you to make copies of your documents.

Backup with Mac and iOS: With “Time Machine”, Apple offers a solution for creating backups on external storage media. This allows both automatic and manual backups. However, if your Mac’s hard drive (HDD or SSD) is damaged and booting is not possible, it makes sense to use a clone to restore and use your Mac. This duplication is possible with Disk Utility.

Apple also offers iTunes, a program for easy data backup on mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc.). It is also possible to store the data to be backed up in the iCloud. 

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