All computers and file storage devices eventually fail. This often leads to losing files, which may be more valuable than the computer itself. Recovering these files can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if the hardware is damaged. Sometimes, the files can't be recovered at all.
You might also need to restore your entire operating system. This is usually a lengthy process if you have to start from scratch, especially if you need to reinstall a bunch of programs and reapply settings.
This is especially important for home users who don't have many resources for full system recovery and have to do it themselves instead of calling expensive IT professionals. Their files are important and often irreplaceable, like family photos and videos, unique artwork, and similar stuff.
IT professionals say a backup a day keeps data recovery away. It's much easier and cheaper to invest in file backup software and storage than to deal with emergency data recovery. This article will give you detailed suggestions on how to create a data backup plan for your personal computer and implement it using our disk imaging and data backup software R-Drive Image.
We've published some articles in our Knowledge Base that describe creating data backup plans for small business servers (for example Creating a Data Consistent, Space Efficient Data Backup Plan for a Small Business Server), but they might be too complicated for home users.
Another difference between business servers and personal computers is what kind of data needs to be backed up. Business servers usually contain complex data structures like databases, so backing up the entire hard drive is often the best option. Personal computers, on the other hand, generally have separate files, so regularly backing up only those files would be better.
There are also some restrictions on where to store backup files. They're limited to external USB storage devices and maybe a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. You can also use various cloud services. They're reliable, well-protected, and available from almost anywhere, plus they might be free for a limited amount of storage space (15 GB for Google Drive, for example).
When we say "a personal use computer" we mean two very different types of computers, and therefore they need different backup plans.
Click the plan you think most suitable to you. You may adapt these plans to your specific needs.
A backup plan for a laptop
Laptops like these are used irregularly, so it's pretty hard to come up with a specific pattern for automatic data backups that would work for most home users. That's why backup tasks will be started manually.
We'll use an external USB drive as the main place to store backup files. It will also protect against various ransomware. Since it's good to have several backups in different locations, we'll use a cloud service for replications. Cloud services are reliable, well-protected, and available from almost anywhere, plus they might be free for a limited amount of storage space (15 GB for Google Drive, for example).
Taking all above into consideration we can now start creating our exemplary backup plan.
Task 1: User files backup
1. Click the Task and Scripts button.
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2. Select Task to create image from files.
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3. Select the folders and subfolders/files you want to back up.
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You only need to do this once; you won't have to do it again each time you run this task.
Then click the Next button.
4. Click the Connect to cloud button to establish a connection with Google Drive.
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5. Click Google Drive on the Connect to cloud dialog box.
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Your default browser will open and connect to the Google site.
6. Select your Google account
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and log in.
7. Look through the permissions you will grant to R-Drive Image
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and click the Continue button.
8. Verify that R-Drive Image is successfully authorized
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and close the browser.
9. Make sure the connection to Google Drive is active.
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10. Select the external USB disk (D: Backup) for the Main copy folder, and choose the backup type for files.
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You can select two backup types: an rdi image file and Differential files copy.
The rdi image file can be encrypted and mounted to your system as a read-only logical disk to extract only necessary files, but only R-Drive Image can work with it. Differential files copy doesn't require R-Drive Image to access files, but it's less secure as files are stored as they are. We believe that modern external disks and Google Drive have strong enough security measures for ordinary user files.
Then click the Options button.
11. Switch to the Replications tab on the Options dialog box,
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then click the Add replications button, select Google_Drive, and click the Open button.
12. Check that the replication path has appeared on the Replication tab.
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Then you can go to the Copy options tab and specify any necessary parameters.
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Select Shutdown computer when completed if you want to turn your computer off when the task is finished.
You can read more about the other options in R-Drive Image help: Copy Files to a Folder.
Then click the OK button to return to the Select the destination for the new image panel.
Click the OK button on this panel.
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14. Select Manually in the Perform this task option on the Task execution schedule panel,
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then click the Save button.
A new task will appear on the Tasks and Scripts panel.
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Now you can start the task manually.
1. Right-click the task and select Execute now.
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R-Drive Image will start executing this task, showing its progress.
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R-Drive Image will show the result when the task is completed.
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Please note that uploading data to Google Drive may take a while if your internet is not fast enough.
Your computer will turn off automatically if you selected the Shutdown computer when completed option.
Files on the disk when the task is successfully completed.
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And on Google Drive
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Note that there are no folders on Google Drive.
When you start the task next time, restore the connection to Google Drive by going to Restore Image, then Tasks and Scripts, and execute the task when the connection has been restored.
Task 2: Backup of the entire system disk
1. Click the Tasks and Scripts button on the Main panel, then click Create task on the Tasks and Scripts panel.
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2. Select the entire hard disk on the Select disk(s) to create image from panel.
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You need to back up the entire hard drive because it contains the System partition locked by BitLocker.
3. Select the destination for the new image, backup type (R-Drive Image format - default),
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and click the Next button.
4. Select the Rotations options on its panel.
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A new full image will be created and the old one deleted every time this task is started. You can change this setting if you want to keep several old images on the disk. See R-Drive Image online help for more details: Simple Rotation Schemes.
5. Go to the Image options tab and specify any necessary parameters.
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Select Shutdown computer when completed if you want to turn your computer off when the task is finished. You can read more about the other options in R-Drive Image help: Create an Image.
6. Select Manually in the Perform this task option on the Task execution schedule tab,
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then click the Save button.
A new task will appear on the Task and Scripts panel.
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Now it's time to start the task manually.
1. Right-click the task and select Execute now.
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R-Drive Image will start executing this task, showing its progress.
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R-Drive Image will show the result when the task is completed.
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Your computer will turn off automatically if you selected the Shutdown computer when completed option.
Files on the disk when the task is successfully completed.
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Note that you'll need R-Drive Startup version to restore the system disk. Read more in the R-Drive Image help page: R-Drive Startup version
A backup plan for a desktop PC
This computer is usually part of a home network, maybe with a NAS device. We'll use the NAS as the place for backup copies. The computer is always on and sleeps when idle, so we can set up automatic backups for some tasks.
With all this in mind, we can now create our example backup plan.
Task 1: Work files backup
1. Click the Task and Scripts button.
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2. Select Task to create an image from files.
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Then click the Next button.
3. Select the folders, subfolders, and/or files you want to back up.
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You only need to do this once. Then click the Next button.
4. Select the external USB DAS device (E: Backup) for the Main copy folder, and choose the backup type for files.
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Then click the Options button.
5. Go to the Replications tab and click Add replication.
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6. Enter the location for the backup copy (\NAS-Device\NAS\Files) and click the Select Folder button.
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7. Verify that the replication address is correct
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and go to the Copy options tab.
8. Make sure the Shutdown when completed option is not selected
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and click OK to return to the Select the destination for the new image panel.
9. Click the Next button.
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10. Select Perform this task Manually and click the Save button.
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A new task will appear.
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11. Right-click the task and select Execute now.
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R-Drive Image will start the task and show its progress.
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You can leave your computer; the task will finish, and then the computer will go to sleep.
When you wake up your computer and open R-Drive Image, it will show the task results.
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You can see the backed-up files on the DAS and NAS devices.
DAS device
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NAS device
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Task 2: Game file backup
Next, you can create another task to back up your game files and do it the same way you did for your work files.
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Task 3: System disk backup
1. Create a new task and select the System, Boot, and System Recovery partitions.
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Then click the Next button.
2. Select the external USB DAS device (E: Backup) for the Main image file,
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and click the Options button.
3. Make sure the Shutdown when completed option is not selected,
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and switch to the Replications tab.
4. Specify the place for replications
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and click OK.
5. Specify the Rotation options.
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R-Drive Image will create 1 full image once a week and 1 differential image every other day. It will always keep 1 previous full image. Then click the Next button.
6. Select the options you want on the Task execution schedule panel.
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Make sure the Wake up computer to run this task option is selected. Then click the Save button.
This task will appear on the Tasks and Scripts panel.
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The task will start automatically every day at 4 AM.
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When you wake up your computer and open R-Drive Image again, it will show you the results of the task.
Note that you'll need R-Drive Startup version to restore the system disk. Read more in the R-Drive Image help page: R-Drive Startup version