How to back up your computer

Teach: How to back up your computer

What to say

Back up a computer with the 3-2-1 rule: keep three copies of anything important, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy away from your home. In practice that means the computer itself, an external drive running the system's built-in backup tool, and a cloud backup or synced folder. Test a restore once, because a backup you cannot open is not a backup.

What to show, in order

1. Decide what matters: documents, photos, tax records and anything you made yourself.
2. Plug in an external drive at least as large as the computer's drive.
3. Turn on the operating system's built-in backup tool and point it at the drive.
4. Leave the drive connected, or plug it in every week, so backups keep running.
5. Set up a cloud backup or a synced folder for your most important files as the off-site copy.
6. Restore one file from each backup to prove it works.
7. Unplug the external drive between backups if you can, so ransomware cannot reach it.

The check question

Ask: What does the 3-2-1 rule ask for? Answer: Three copies, two kinds of storage, one off-site

From EveryManKnows. General information, not professional advice.