Article Number: 000151637
This article provides information about what types of backup are possible. What are the questions you need to ask before choosing a plan for your Linux or Windows-based Dell PC.
Backup and recovery are essential on any system. Not having a verified backup and recovery procedure, puts your data at risk of loss.
People often learn this only after their data is lost for good. Any Attempts at recovering lost data loss can take up both a lot of your time and your money. Ensure you have a system in place that protects your data in order to make sure this never happens to you.
There are several questions to ask yourself before you look at putting a plan in place:
There are many different ways and different software out there to provide backup and recovery. Making the best choice for you will have to take several things into account:
(RTO): How fast would you need the data back up? Can you keep working if the data is not recovered for a day, a week, and so forth?
(RPO): How much data are you prepared to lose? Can you lose two hours, two days or two weeks of data?
Example: if you can withstand losing one week of data then a weekly backup would be sufficient. However, if you can only withstand losing one day then you would need to employ a nightly backup - or a variation.
This document will cover three basic types of backup:
A full backup backs up everything in the location you select.
An incremental backup backs up everything that has changed since the last backup.
A differential backup is the same as an incremental if your running Linux or MacOS. In Windows it is a backup that does not clear the archive bit.
Depending on the money, you have to spend and the specific RTO and RPO you have selected you can choose from these three methods:
Manual backup would be initiated on a schedule by you and is the most common method for home users to backup your files. This method is also the least reliable, but is the cheapest.
Automated backups are ones that target media physically attached to the PC being backed up. Advanced home users and small businesses will often use this method.
Automated backups are ones that target media over a network. This type of backup is used by businesses that have money they can dedicate to the process of backup. As the organization becomes more mature, they may even stage the backup on multiple mediums and increase the distance between backup and production systems.
Ubuntu file systems record three different times for each file:
Modification time is when the value is changed when the contents of the file is changed.
Access time is when the value is changed when the file is accessed. The atime can change when a backup utility or script reads the file as well as when a user reads the file.
Change time is when the value is updated whenever the attributes of the file change. This can be ownership or permissions.
Windows file systems record only 2 for each file. It is either set or clear.
When set, it indicates that the file has changed since the last backup operation. Windows file system sets this attribute on any file that has changed. Backup software then has the duty of clearing it upon a successful backup.
It is crucial that your backups be tested by restoring from them.
Here are some tests that you should do to ensure you can recover from a loss:
Restore many single files
Restore an older version of a file
Restore an entire folder
Restore an entire drive and compare the checksum
If you do not test, you may find out that nothing was being backed up when you need to restore the files in reality.
Desktops & All-in-Ones, Laptops
21 Feb 2021
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