By: Eyal Gallico, owner of TopMac

So, why is backup of your digital information so important? And should you backup your “stuff”?

1st rule of fight club:          You need a backup!

2nd rule of fight club:         You need a backup!

3rd rule of fight club:          Haven’t you backed up yet?

These days as more and more of our life are in digital form (when was the last time you exposed a film?), we need to keep some of our stuff backed up, because we can’t afford to lose it.

It may be photos, files or anything that has any meaning to you, and that if you lose it you know you are in a serious pickle.

It doesn’t really matter if you use Windows or a Mac computer, there are few ways to backup your data.

Local Backup – Local backup as the name implies, is a local backup usually via an external drive. You plug the drive to your computer and copy the files you need, Or create a clone of your drive with a dedicated software.

Off-site Backup – meaning you take your backup someplace else except your home or  office.

Cloud Backup – means you backup to the cloud via a cloud provider (also referred to as off-site backup).

What is the best way to backup?

There is no right or wrong answer; it depends on what you need to backup, and how fast you need it in case of recovery.

My 5-cent advice to you is have at least 3 copies/backup.

Let me explain myself: Case I had with one of my clients, who has a design studio with several iMacs and backup drives attached to every Mac. One night his studio was burglarized, and all his iMacs and the drives connected to them were stolen.

So he had a backup, right?  Wrong… The thieves have his machines AND the backup. So in this case his backup strategy was flawed.

More on how to backup your data in Part 2 of my article… so stay tuned.

BTW- Dropbox is NOT a backup solution—It’s a synchronizing solution.

For more information on this subject, be sure to read:

• How good is your backup?
• What do you mean you do not have backup?