World Backup Day 2024 is a new edition of the annual day designed by the tech industry to remind us the importance of backups in today’s digital world, where data loss is commonplace, whether due to a storage drive failure; from a serious operating system problem that prevents access; from stealing our mobile device or malware with attacks as dangerous as Ransomware.

These backups are real life vest. They should be part of any computer maintenance program and should also be included in a general cyber security strategy because a large part of data loss comes from computer attacks. Our digital life can change at any moment, let this day serve as an awareness of Backup and mandatory disaster prevention before we have to regret it.

World Backup Day 2024

Despite its importance, it is estimated that 30% of users have never backed up and another good part does not perform this task with due diligence. As for companies, not all of them do it completely and effectively. As a way to raise awareness, the tech industry has proposed celebrating World Backup Day on March 31 each year.

On a personal level, it is important to start working as soon as possible and there are several ways to do this, starting with transferring the most important files and data that we cannot lose to secondary storage units to those we use on the PC. They can be second indoor units or – even better – external drives. Here we have the option to use optical media, pendrives or other USB drives, in addition to specific devices for this task, where NAS excels. If we choose to use third-party resources, cloud storage They are another good method for protecting data and files.

When it comes to professionals and companies, a comprehensive disaster policy must be in place to protect both office workstations and data in home environments that came with the hybrid environment and are typically less protected than business perimeter networks. ‘3-2-1’ strategies are ideal in this type of business scenario and consist of creating three backup copies of data on two different physical storage media and a third off-site, usually in the cloud.

When it comes to software, there are dozens of dedicated commercial applications that make automatic backups easy. Major operating systems also have internal tools for this, plus they offer recovery and recovery features.

Backup and restore in Windows

Microsoft operating systems have several backup options, as well as the creation of restore points, which – as we said – act as a “life saver” in case of any incident. In celebration of this World Backup Day 2024, and as a grain of sand in the task of general awareness, we remind you of the options of backup tasks from Windows.

Full backups

It is the indicated method when we want to secure all computer data, operating system, settings, applications and user files. The tool is available on Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows 7 and allows you to create a complete image of the drives necessary to run Windows. This image can be used to restore the computer in case of critical computer errors. It is managed as follows:

• Access control panel system.
• Click on Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
• Click on Create a system image.
• Choose where the image will be saved. In addition to the partition where Windows is installed, you can store the image in several places, starting with another partition on the hard disk or SSD. However, in case of a complete failure of the internal storage, we recommend saving the image to an external USB drive or network drive. It is also possible to use DVD optical media, but you need a very large number of them.

• Click to confirm and start the process Start the backup.

The backup can take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours depending on the amount of data being processed, although you can use your computer during the process. The tool does not allow you to customize the files to be included, but it is a simple method that can be done from the operating system itself, which creates a complete image that we can restore if the storage unit or the computer itself stops working.

File backup

As the name suggests, this is an implied method for storing a personalized backup of the main system folders and files for recovery in case of loss or damage. In the following way:

• Access control panel system.
• Click on File history.
• Select an external drive, such as a hard drive / SSD with a USB port, or select a network drive where to save the copies.

• You can select and exclude folders from the main system folders, Libraries (downloads, documents, pictures…), Desktop, Contacts and Favorites.
• After administration, click the button Activate.

After the first activation you get access to Advanced configuration choose how often to make copies and how long to keep saved versions. In case of problems, just click on the option Restore personal files and select the version of the files you want to return to their original location.

Windows System Restore

Another useful feature is restore points in Windows to solve problems in the operating system in case of a serious system errorviruses, driver installation or an application that does not work properly and sometimes destabilizes the operating system.

Windows restore points are created and managed using the System Restore tool System Recovery. Its operation is as simple as it is powerful. The tool saves files and the main configuration of the operating system, settings, drivers, registry keys or installed programs, and in case of errors, it allows you to undo the changes made and return to the previous state when the system worked correctly.

Its operation and management is basically the same in Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, and it is very useful for every user when the system does not work well or works erratically due to some installation or modification of its parameters, which is not unusual in Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. Microsoft Systems. It also serves as a safeguard against important changes to the system, such as when we make changes to the registry.

How to Create Restore Points in Windows

To check if we have the function active or to manage it, we access the System Protection tool located in the control panel of the operating system or directly from the search box by entering “system restore” or “restore points”:

This way we will enter the ‘System/System Protection’ tool and see if we have the system restore feature activated and how many drives are available. We recommend at least activate it on the partition where we have the operating system installed. We can also create a configuration, manage the disk space we have reserved, and delete previous restore points that we will not use.

We click on Configure and activate system protection. We will also need to set the storage drive space usage that we will assign to this recovery function, which will depend on our needs and the total capacity that we have on the computer.

Once the feature is activated, we can create restore points whenever we are interested, we recommend doing so before making hardware changes, installing drivers or applications that we doubt will work. Obviously, we need to create restore points when the system is working properly.

How to restore the system

Once the restore points are created, we can use them to roll back those unwanted changes that caused system errors. From the same “System Properties” screen, we can restore the system and return the computer to a previous point in case of problems.

Simply click on the ‘System Restore’ button and select one of the points which we created manually or an automatic point created by the same system.

The tool restores the main operating system files and configuration, settings, drivers, registry keys or installed programs to the time they were created and repairs the system.

In conclusion. World Backup Day 2024 is a good reminder to perform backup tasks as a basic maintenance task. If replacement of damaged hardware can be resolved, losing professional or personal files can sometimes have a huge cost recovery is not possible unless you have a backup saver. As for the recovery tools, these are additional additional functions, but also necessary, allowing you to return the device to the previous point in a simple and fast way, just as we had them before the problems began, saving your valuable time reinstalling the operating system. settings, apps and data.