Reviewed and updated 20 October 2026.
Losing business data can interrupt work and leave important records unavailable. A tested backup gives you a separate recovery copy when the original files cannot be used. We are all familiar with the frustrating feeling of losing important files. Backing up your hard drive is an important and fundamental process, for businesses of any size. An essential part of your cyber security, CIS take a closer look at how to back up your hard drive below.
Why Back Ups Are Essential
Regular, tested backups can support:
- Business recovery – restore covered data after accidental deletion, device failure or an incident. Resuming work also depends on applications, access, connectivity and a recovery plan.
- Ransomware recovery – protected backup copies may help restore data. They do not prevent data theft or eliminate downtime, investigation and recovery costs.
Start with a list of the information and systems your business needs to operate. Decide how much recent work you could afford to lose and how quickly each service needs to return.
For more information about our IT support and back up and disaster recovery solutions, contact our team or explore our site for more.
How Does Data Backup Work?
There are various methods of data backup (see below), but the most common is to use a cloud-based system.
Cloud backup stores recovery copies on remote infrastructure. Check the backup scope, retention, access controls, failure alerts and restore process; being in the cloud does not automatically make a copy recoverable or secure.
Cloud back up for business essentially makes a copy of your data on an independent storage system that may be owned by your own organisation or provided by a third party.
Public and private cloud describe deployment arrangements. Security depends on configuration, access controls and operating practices. Synchronising files with a cloud storage service is not, by itself, a complete backup plan.
However, the key to successful data backup is repetition – the backup is only a snapshot of your data at a particular point, so the more often you do it, the more up-to-date the backup will be, and the less data will potentially be lost.
For more information on cloud-based back up services contact the team at CIS today.
What Should You Back Up?
The simple answer to what should you back up is, any data that is difficult to replace or data you wouldn’t want to lose.
This can include:
- Word processing documents
- Spreadsheets
- Databases
- Client details
- Emails
- Photographs, video and music files
For business recovery, include the applications, settings, licences and dependencies needed to use the restored data. Decide whether file-level backup, a system image or another recovery method meets your requirements.
The danger of not backing up your files is more than just losing months of work. While it is sometimes possible to retrieve data from a corrupted hard drive the process is expensive and not always 100% effective.
How to Back Up Your Files
Backing up files at home needn’t be expensive or complicated.
Here are six ways to back up and protect yourself from losing important data.
- USB stick or external hard drive – You can save files on a USB stick or external hard drive which is easy and relatively cheap. However, USBs are easily mislaid due to their size, and external hard drives need to be looked after as they are susceptible to damage or malware.
- Network-attached storage (NAS) – a storage device on a network, not automatically a cloud service. Copies on the same network can share exposure to theft, fire, compromised accounts or ransomware.
- Cloud storage – check version history, retention and restore limitations. Synchronisation can carry deletions or unwanted changes to other devices, so assess whether a separate backup is needed.
- Hard copies – For some of those most vital documents a hard copy, locked in a fire-proof box will survive any network outages and they can’t be accessed by cybercriminals.
- System backup – use a supported backup product and operating system. Test restoring the applications and configuration as well as the files; do not rely on an untested system image.
- Microsoft 365 backup – review the recovery features and retention configured for your tenant. Microsoft provides recovery capabilities and a dedicated Backup service; additional protection should be chosen against your workloads and recovery requirements.
Set backup frequency and retention around the rate of change and the amount of recent work the business can tolerate losing. Automate jobs where appropriate, monitor failures and arrange restore tests with a named owner.
A common starting point is three copies of important data, across two storage types, with one copy off-site. Assess whether copies are sufficiently isolated or protected from deletion, and test recovery rather than relying on the copy count alone.
If you don’t remember when you last did a backup and would like some advice on automating it or putting disaster recovery services in place which are right for your business speak with the team at CIS today.
