Data loss is not always caused by hackers — sometimes it's a dropped laptop or a deleted folder. Here's a simple backup routine small teams can put in place.
When a laptop dies, the hardware is rarely the expensive part. The expensive part is the two years of quotations, records and photos that were only ever stored in one place.
A backup only counts if it is automatic, tested, and stored somewhere other than the device it protects. Everything else is a good intention.
The 3-2-1 rule, simplified
- Three copies of anything you cannot re-create.
- Two different kinds of storage — for example the laptop plus an external drive.
- One copy off-site, which for most teams means cloud storage.
A setup you can do this week
- Move active work into a synced folder (Google Drive or OneDrive) so it is never only on the device.
- Add a weekly copy to an external drive that lives somewhere else — not in the same laptop bag.
- Turn on version history so a wrong edit or a ransomware encryption can be rolled back.
- Book a recovery test in your calendar every quarter: restore one real file and confirm it opens.
The part people skip
An untested backup is a rumour. A useful question during any backup review is: when did you last successfully restore a file? If the answer is "never", treat the backup as unproven until a recovery test succeeds.
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