Simple Backup for Customers

Bill Tech

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Hello everyone. This is my first post, hoping I can get some suggestions from this great community. I offer computer repair for general customers with their home PCs or laptops. As I'm sure others are aware, most of the time they have no backup of their data. I want to offer them a simple, low-cost backup solution that provides an external drive along with scheduled backup software. I've looked online for some decent options with little success. Rather than purchasing and reviewing several myself I thought I would see if others had suggestions for this situation. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
If it means the external drive has to be plugged in all the time it's not a good backup... (ransomware, human error, etc...).

I am quoting this because, particularly in the age of ransomware, it bears repeating as often as necessary. As things stand now, and probably will remain for some time, I no longer ever set up a client with automated, cyclic backups where the drive stays connected. That's almost certain to eventually, when least expected, fall to ransomware and the backup is no better than any other data as the drive will be encrypted.

Instead I set the client up with one of the free backup programs (I'm talking strictly residential, home users here - businesses get a purchased option) and discuss with them that the backup interval should be directly dependent on how much new data they generate, on average, and how much would be enough for them to "tear their hair out" were they to lose it. Then set up a reminder in a calendar program telling them to connect their backup drive, do the backup, and disconnect it. I also tell them that were they to have an "off cycle" mass influx of new data, e.g., thousands of photos they upload after a vacation, they should take an off-cycle backup immediately afterward.

For me, system image backups are a must, with parallel user data only backups being an option, and one I recommend. As far as the latter goes, one can use either that feature of the backup software chosen if it has one (most do) or the Windows File History built-in utility. The latter is a cinch to set up, but a bit of a PITA to get used to recovering from, particularly if it's to a different machine. But I'm way more concerned about backups existing so that they can be recovered from than I am about actual ease of the recovery process.
 
fast-backup.com Great, free, and effective. If you want a File History and scheduled backup option then you have to pay for it, otherwise it's great. Another good one is GoodSync. Again, scheduled backup is a paid feature. File history is free though. If you want a headache then use FileHistory that's built into Windows. Restoring it on a different computer or a fresh install is confusing and your client is 100% guaranteed to screw it up.

A backup is only as good as its ability to be restored. I recommend avoiding backup software that creates image files or other proprietary backup files. You're just asking to get burned unless you do a full backup every time, and even then there can be problems. A good backup software should keep the files in their original format. That way if something gets corrupted, it will only be a single file and not the whole backup.
 
While I certainly see the point of not keeping your backups plugged in all the time, I don't think that's reasonable for most home users. What I do in my shop is tell people the best practices (removing the backup daily), offer to set up an automated backup with File History, and explain a few of the available services. After that - and this is the important part - I tell them that backups are not some mysterious special process, it's just a spare copy of important files kept elsewhere. It's always the client's choice, so unless you're getting a commission, let them choose.

Education is worth more than any service can be. All too often, I have people come to me saying that their "backup" drive is damaged and they need to get to some certain file on it, or recover pics, or whatever. If they really had a backup, they would just have another copy they could get. People will even use a backup service to store their files on an external drive, then delete their originals so they have more space.
 
I have taken to setting my clients up with WD drives and the included Acronis WD Edition, which has a limited feature set compared to the standalone license, but is easy to use, automatic, and includes their AI based ransomware protection software.

 
How does Acronis deal differently than Macrium, how can their single algorithm stop ransomware? I think it is just a way to spruik the catchword. It works the same way, user needs to connect an external device. Just like Macrium does, and if missed will initiate when connected. We cant always hover over individuals and monitor behaviour (unless is a managed solution), though we can advise them on best ways to manage data integrity.
 
One out 10 customers will handle plugging the drive in on a regular basis. The rest will end up leaving it in the drawer for months on end and they shyly admit they've been meaning to do it.

Which may be true, probably is, but that's a choice, and choices have consequences.

I can only educate people about what they need to do, whether they actually do it afterward, and after I've set things up and taught them exactly how easy running a backup is, it's in their hands.

Prior to the age of ransomware, I generally recommended either an internal backup drive or leaving an external one connected and having the backups run automatically. But that's no longer safe, and safety and security for your data is the entire reason for doing backups (regardless of the type one chooses to do).
 
I set them up with a backup solution that requires them to plug in an external harddrive. I then explain to them why they need to plug it in and then remove it after the backup is finished. I then STRESS to them that the frequency that they do the backups is up to them HOWEVER it should be determined by HOW LOUD and HOW LONG they are going to cry when they realize they have not done said backup and things have crashed. Only ever had 2 who CRIED REALLY LOUD AND REALLY LONG
 
It would be nice to have a script to unhide/hide the external drive before/after running the back-up on a schedule. That would keep the the back-up safe from ransomware except during the actual backing-up process. Most back-up programs let you run such scripts before/after performing the back-up. While diskpart can be used in the script, as suggested here, I'm not sure the drive order would be predictable and unaffected by forgetting that you left a USB flash drive or other drive connected before running the script. Need to experiment a bit.

Anyone do this reliably?
 
I want to thank the community for all the great responses that I have received. It has given me a lot of different perspectives and some things to think about. I'm all about trying to educate customers as much as possible so they understand (1) the importance of backups and (2) how to properly execute a backup, however most of the time they tell me they don't understand computers and don't want to think about it. So I plan on setting them up with a backup drive along with something like Acronis to run scheduled backups. While this is not ideal in the event of a ransomware attack, it will provide them with some protection for deleted files or a failed drive.
 
I think if you walk them through kicking off a backup once you have everything set up, many of those who are hesitant will change their minds.

I have a substantial number of both senior citizen and blind clients, and after learning just how simple it is to take a backup once someone has installed the software and set up a drive for them the fears disappear.

One thing I don't get into with those clients, as they don't need to know it, is the importance of using disk management to assign the backup drive a drive letter way up the alphabet on any machine on which it will be used. When you have a drive letter such as X, there is pretty much zero probability of any "plug in order conflict" for the backup software.

I use two different backup drives on my machines, alternating the drives each month, so that a failure in any one of the drives means that I am no more than 2 months behind. They have the letters W and X.
 
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