Backing up Files

Backing up your files simply means making a copy of them for safekeeping. This is done in case the original files become unusable due to loss or corruption. These copies can be used to restore the original data in the event of loss. Copies should be stored on a different device from the original files. For example, you may use a USB drive, an external hard drive, a CD/DVD, or an off-site service.

The best way to back up your files is to do so regularly, keeping the copies off-site and (possibly) encrypted.

The easiest way of backing up your files and settings is to let a backup application manage the backup process for you. noonOS comes with preinstalled backup application Déjà Dup. To open application go to Application Menu and search for Backups.

The application will walk you through setting your preferences for the backup, as well as how to restore your data.

An alternative option is to copy your files to a safe location, such as an external hard drive, another computer on the network, or a USB drive. Your personal files and settings are usually in your Home folder, so you can copy them from there.

The amount of data you can back up is limited by the size of the storage device. If you have the room on your backup device, it is best to back up the entire Home folder with the following exceptions:

Your priority should be to back up your most important files as well as those that are difficult to recreate. For example, ranked from most important to least important:

In general, you will want to back up files that are irreplaceable and files that require a great time investment to replace without a backup. If things are easy to replace, on the other hand, you may not want to use up disk space by having backups of them.

You should store backup copies of your files somewhere separate from your computer — on an external hard disk, for example. That way, if the computer breaks, the backup will still be intact. For maximum security, you shouldn’t keep the backup in the same building as your computer. If there is a fire or theft, both copies of the data could be lost if they are kept together.

It is important to choose an appropriate backup medium too. You need to store your backups on a device that has sufficient disk capacity for all of the backed-up files.

Some of these options have sufficient capacity to allow for a backup of every file on your system, also known as a complete system backup.

After you have backed up your files, you should make sure that the backup was successful. If it didn’t work properly, you could lose important data since some files could be missing from the backup.

When you use Files to copy or move files, the computer checks to make sure that all of the data transferred correctly. However, if you are transferring data that is very important to you, you may want to perform additional checks to confirm that your data has been transferred properly.

You can do an extra check by looking through the copied files and folders on the destination media. By checking to make sure that the files and folders you transferred are actually there in the backup, you can have extra confidence that the process was successful.

If you lost or deleted some of your files, but you have a backup of them, you can restore them from the backup: