Backup Software, What's the point?

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pmilleroly27

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May 29, 2012
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I have very elementary question about backing up data in a home environment. Backup is a bit mysterious to me because, well I've never had to recover data from a backup. I've run Windows and Norton Backup, but I've never needed to run them to restore data so I've got no idea how they work. But I've noticed they don't really compress the file sizes. If I backup 1 TB I'll need a TB's worth of backup storage. I don't backup photos, music and video, I just store them on multiple hards, computers etc.
So my question is "Can't you just store extra copies of data on multiple devices and just do without the whole backup software in the first place? I could see the benefit of backing up some software application, but most application are just a click away from downloading online.
 
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Backup software is for
* automation, it does it on regular basis without you (time or event based)
* automation, you don't need to check which data is backed up when and how
* compression like zip and it only saves differences to last backup, so it just needs a fraction of space
* encryption, safe from others on multiple user place
* you can safe easily partitions, whole drives or just specific folders, you can even backup you windows installation and restore
* you can even boot on some backup software to restore your Windows installation
* some software allows you to restore single files and different older versions of it

Probably there are still some other reason. I am not using any backup software anymore, but I should. Redundancy...
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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May 29, 2013
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The main benefit of backup SOFTWARE, IMO is the automation. I have my computer run backups every night at 0130 while I am asleep. I get 7 copies (one per night) of all my critical files sent to two different locations. Since I base my backups on directories, if I add something to "my documents" it automatically gets picked up in the backup. I backup about 4GB (compressed) per night.

If something gets hosed, I have 14 chances to get it back.

I DO backup photos weekly to network storage and then periodically send them to cloud storage. Photos are one thing that you can't have too many copies of, IMO.
 
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

Glorious
Feb 10, 2006
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If you have ever lost an entire hard drive, you will know the benefits of a backup. Also, restoring a backup is most times much quicker than reinstalling an OS, apply all OS updates, downloading and restoring drivers and programs, and reconfiguring those programs.

Also, backup software does compress files. Compresssion depends on the type of file it is. Some file types are already compressed and can't be compressed much more if at all. MP3's and JPG's are already compressed so see little compression.

Depending on what you are trying to backup, multiple copies of a program on seperate disks is fine. Personally, I like to have a backup image of my boot drive, so if it fails I can be up and running quickly.
 
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mjslakeridge

mjslakeridge

Splendid
Mar 6, 2013
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Agree with both of the above responses. I have had to revert to a backup of the boot drive several times due to suspected virus/malware, or just the system acting up (probably something I did). I backup every few weeks (manually using Acronis True Image), or before installing some new program. Important items from my storage drive (photos, mp3's, documents, etc. are copied to multiple external drives, dvd's etc.
 
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turbopixel

Reputable
May 18, 2015
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Backup software is for
* automation, it does it on regular basis without you (time or event based)
* automation, you don't need to check which data is backed up when and how
* compression like zip and it only saves differences to last backup, so it just needs a fraction of space
* encryption, safe from others on multiple user place
* you can safe easily partitions, whole drives or just specific folders, you can even backup you windows installation and restore
* you can even boot on some backup software to restore your Windows installation
* some software allows you to restore single files and different older versions of it

Probably there are still some other reason. I am not using any backup software anymore, but I should. Redundancy is essential.
 
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Solution
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,388
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First of all, you are doing good by backing up your irreplaceable files to external devices.
That protects you from not only hardware failure, but also from viruses, fires, etc.

One problem I have with backups such as image copies is how to test the recovery process.
I would hate to try to overlay my production drive and find out that I missed something and was left with nothing.

I could, if necessary reinstall windows and all of the games and apps that have accumulated over time, but that would be a real pain.

I stumbled across a good, if pricey solution.
I needed to migrate from my 250gb ssd to a 500gb ssd.
Samsung migration tool did this easily.
Considering what to do with my old 250gb ssd, I realized that I now had a backup that would work. Instead of selling the 250gb ssd, I just keep it around in case I ever need to do a recovery.

 
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