Checklist for Offline & OnSite Data Backups

Prevent data loss by backing up your valuable data! Follow this checklist to perform a professional, regular and comfortable data backup (offline to prevent ransomware attacks and on site for quick recovery).

📋 Planning & Preparation

• 1. Read the documents first to plan the best backup strategy, e.g. 3-2-1.
• 2. Get hard drives with enough capacity (use different vendors/models/types).
• 3. Label the hard drives by writing the disk size and a unique name onto them (e.g. "4TB VIDEO BACKUP #1"), then connect them with the computer and rename the disks using the same name.
• 4. Download this repository (5.8MB), then unzip and copy it as top folder 📁my-backups onto each backup harddisk.
• 5. Set up a reminder in your digital calendar to back up your data every day/week/month/etc.

💾 How to back up your Data

• 1. Connect your smartphone to the PC and copy photos into the Pictures folder, documents into the Documents folder, and so on.
• 2. Connect the next hard drive to the PC and open the top folder 📁my-backups and then 📁scripts.
• 3. Execute the backup scripts one after another, e.g. 📄save_Pictures.bat which copies your 📁Pictures folder to the backup disk at 📁my-backups/my_data/Pictures
• 4. Disconnect the drive properly and store it carefully in a separate (!) and secure (!) location.

🪂 How to recover your Data

• 1. Get the hard drive with the latest (!) backup.
• 2. Check the hard drive: in case it's damaged read the documents.
• 3. Connect the hard drive to the PC and open the top folder 📁my-backups and then 📁my_data.
• 4. Manually copy (=overwrite files) or sync (=overwrite folder content) the missing or corrupted data back to the computer (but DON'T MOVE the data).
• 5. Disconnect the drive properly and store it carefully in the separate and secure location again.

💡 Hints

• A full backup is made at first (slow for big data), but then only changes ("deltas") are copied in no time.
• A backup logbook is updated automatically by the backup scripts ('Logbook.csv', a table in .CSV format with backup details).
• No encryption is currently performed to keep it simple and robust! We recommend an encryption program and a vault to prevent unauthorized access.
• Test your backups regularly to ensure that they are working properly. Restore your backups to a test environment and check that all of your data can be accessed as expected.
• Feedback is welcome! Create a pull request or send your email feedback to: markus.fleschutz [at] gmail.com
• DISCLAIMER: All informations are given according to my best knowledge, but without guarantee.

🤝 License & Copyright

This open source project is licensed under the CC0-1.0 license. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.