In all the years I have been doing IT work, the number one error I see most often when people do a backup is that they forget to double check what files are actually being backed up. Backup sets are great, they can help to backup the files that you know you want backed up, but backup sets do not always catch all the files that you may want backed up.
The solution is simple, take few minutes and double check that your chosen online backup software is actually backing up all the files you want. Some services do not include executable files by default but only if you click on the particular file. Many backup sets for Word Processing files don’t know that OpenOffice Writer files are word processor files and will not back them up. Photos might only be selected if they have the .jpg extension, but you might edit your photographs and save the new files as .tif’s.
Don’t discover after it is to late that your chosen online backup service failed to backup your most precious files. Take an extra five minutes to double check that the folders and files you want and need backed up are indeed included in the backup. That five minutes can make a huge difference when your hard drive dies and you restore your files and discover the file you really wanted is gone because it was not detected by a default backup set.
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