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How to Back up Your Data Using Free Cloud-based Storage

07:15
After a hard drive crash or some other computer disaster, your first thought is usually: "Do I have a backup copy of that file?" The next question might be: "Did I just loose our family photo files from the last 10 years?" If the answer is yes, then the only other question you'll be asking is "how comfortable is our couch for sleeping on for an indefinite period of time?"
 
You can potentially save yourself a lot of agony and grief if you come up with a data backup strategy. Any good backup strategy doesn't throw all the proverbial eggs in one basket; a solid backup strategy involves redundancy.

Your primary form of backup should probably be a local DVD, external hard drive, or other form of media. You should also have a secondary backup method, possibly to an offsite location, in case your house burns down and your primary backup drive or disk melts along with it.

One possible destination for offsite backup data storage is "the cloud".  There are many cloud-based data storage options available, and thankfully, many of them offer some level of free storage in addition to the many paid options that are available to consumers.

Most free plans offered by cloud storage providers range from 1 to 5 Gigabytes. Some providers offer as much as 50 GB and many will allow you to receive additional MBs or GBs via refer-a-friend programs, or through other special promotions.

The main downside to free cloud based storage is that your provider may fold up shop and go out of business, leaving your data without a home. For this reason, cloud storage should ALWAYS be a secondary redundant data storage medium and NEVER your primary one.

So, How do You Backup Your Data to The Cloud For Free?

Follow these simple steps to get started:

1. Choose a Cloud Storage Provider That Meets Your Needs

Not all cloud-based storage providers are created equal. Some offer more free storage than others. Many providers have limitations on the way that the storage can be used. There are likely individual file size limits, and other considerations.
Wikipedia provides a comparison table that compares the features of most of the major cloud-based storage providers. Check out the comparison table and take a look at Tim Fisher's list of the Free Online Backup Services as well.

Some Questions to Consider When Evaluating a Cloud-based Storage Provider Include:

  • Does this company look like it is going to be around for a while?
  • How much free storage do they offer?
  • What kind of security features do they provide to protect my data?
  • What is their privacy policy?
  • Have they been hacked before?
  • Will they delete my account or data if I don't access it often?

2. Create a Strong Password for Your Cloud Storage Account and Take Advantage of Other Provided Security Features

Given the fact that you are considering storing personal data somewhere that is not within your easy reach, you should make sure you use an extremely strong password on your cloud storage account.
If any other security features, such as 2-factor authentication are offered, you should consider using them to enhance your data's security.

3. Encrypt Your Data Before Moving it to the Cloud

If your cloud security provider gets hacked, then there is always the chance that your data may end up in the wrong hands. If you encrypt your data before moving it to your cloud-synced folder, then unless they have the decryption key or you use a very weak encryption method, your data should still be fairly safe from prying eyes, even if it was stolen in the breach.
AxCrypt and TrueCrypt are two file/disk encryption tools that you might want to consider using to encrypt your data before you move it to the cloud.
The data backup tool you’re already using may offer the option of encrypting your data, which might be an even easier solution.

4. Schedule Regular Backups

You need to set up your backup tool of choice to backup your files on a regular basis. You may want to consider a schedule where all of your important files are backed up once a week, with only the files that changed, backed up every night. Of course this is just an example, you can choose whatever schedule make sense for your situation.
If your backup tool offers encrypted backups, then you can point your backup tool's destination to your cloud drive (if you mapped the drive in windows). This method allows for the encryption and backup-to-cloud process to be fully automated. Otherwise, you will need to encrypt your files before dropping them in the folder that is scheduled to be backed up.

5. Check to See if Your Backups are Working

There is nothing worse than finding out the backup disk that you thought you had your backed up files on has nothing on it. You should periodically check the files in your backups to see if the backup process is really taking place. Don't just trust the log file, go try and open a file from your backup location and see if it is what you are expecting it to be.

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