How to Determine What Data You Should Backup
Many times, when you prepare and schedule a backup on your computer that you might believe it’s best to backup and save everything. This is fine, however, it might cause headaches down the road. Today, I would like to talk to you about how to best determine what you need to backup, what you can backup and ways to sort through it.
What to Consider When Selecting Files for Your Backup
Jungle Disk is best used when backing up user created files. Choosing files that could be easily downloaded again, such as music or movies, you might want to skip. Also, avoid choosing your folders such as Favorites, Program Files or any other directories of programs that could be downloaded again. This will also ensure less errors in your backups and save you storage space and money.
We do find that many times customers select their entire C drive (Windows) for backup. We understand that you might want your OS backed up but Jungle Disk does not do full metal backup or an store an image of your computer. What we can do is backup an image of your computer that is created by a third-party program. Remember, to make sure to add this folder to “What to Backup” in the Jungle Disk Backup settings. This will allow you to restore this file in case of a system crash.
We have plenty of customers who choose to backup Outlook files. You can continue to use Jungle Disk to backup your Outlook files or now we offer email archiving as an easy, affordable way to protect your emails and give you the ability to manage them all in one place.
Another key thing to think about when you are deciding what data and files to back up is Retention. This is a very important setting to be aware of. This can cause your backup to swell if you have constantly changing files or can cause you to not save a copy that is old enough if you require older file versions. Check out a previous post to get familiar with retention settings and how to set up to best fit your business needs/requirements.
If you ever need any help with your Jungle Disk Encrypted Backup settings, please reach out to our team. We are happy to help!