{"id":61489,"date":"2025-11-26T16:23:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/?p=61489"},"modified":"2025-11-26T18:10:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:10:24","slug":"how-to-backup-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/how-to-backup-files\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Backup Files &#8211; A Complete Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is difficult to imagine a business without any data stored in digital form and not having a solid plan on how to backup files. Commercial information, financial records, clients\u2019 private data, their orders, etc. \u2013 all this data is kept on computers or in the cloud and has to be backed up regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you\u2019re planning your backups, file backup is the first cornerstone you use to build your backup strategy. A reliable backup strategy ensures that your files are safe and, in the event of any disaster, you\u2019ll get back on track promptly.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"table-of-content \">\n\t\t\t\t<p>Table of Contents<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<ul><\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to Backup Files 101: What Is a File Backup?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">File, or file-level, backup is a type of backup that makes a copy of individual files and folders. You can back up all your files and folders or choose the ones of the greatest importance in order to save some space in the storage. Documents, images, videos \u2013 any file can be backed up and recovered in a similar state to when it was copied to the backup storage.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benefits of File Backup<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Files and folders should be backed up on a regular basis, as you never know what might happen someday. Cyberattacks are occurring more and more frequently, files might be damaged because of power loss or a system crash, and even the best employee is not above making a mistake. The only way to keep your data safe is a backup, and a file-level backup is the one you can start (and continue) with. Here is why:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">File-level backup is considered to be the easiest of all backup types. You do nothing more than just copy files and folders to the external storage and then restore them when needed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">File backup is also the fastest way to back up data, as you don\u2019t copy the whole system to the storage, as you do with an image-based backup. Single files and folders don\u2019t take much time to transfer both to the storage, and back again.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As file backup is the most granular backup type, it is also the most flexible. You can create different backup schedules for different folders according to compliance or other rules you fall under. Some of your documents might require a daily backup, while others are good with being copied weekly. Create backup plans with the appropriate preferences and you\u2019ll be fine with both categories; file-level backup is easy to tailor to your needs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to Back Up Files based on location storage<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to choosing how to backup files and the best storage destination, it\u2019s important to remember the golden standard of data backups called 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule, some of the requirements of which are associated with storage types you should opt for. This standard requires you to choose at least 2 different storage types to store your data on and keep at least 1 copy of your data off-site. With regard to this rule, you can combine storing data locally on a physical drive with storing data in the cloud. Here\u2019s a side by side comparison of both approaches:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Local backup can be much cheaper compared to cloud backup since it\u2019s usually a one-time purchase. Once the external drive is purchased, you don\u2019t need to spend more money because you already own the storage. However, it comes with its own drawbacks: the storage space is limited, and once you run out of it, you have to purchase a new drive. It\u2019s a great option for lower data volumes and serves as an extra layer of protection; however, it\u2019s not recommended to use physical devices only to store your data, as they are prone to overheating and physical damage, which can lead to data loss if the device is damaged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cloud storage, on the contrary, is virtually unlimited, and you pay for the space used in small fixed increments based on the amount of data stored. Another benefit on how to backup files using cloud storage, is that you can access your data from anywhere and restore it on demand. However, if your internet connection is unstable, you may experience accessibility issues. Cloud storage is also very secure, and all maintenance is handled by the provider, so you don\u2019t have to worry about implementing additional security measures to protect your data in the cloud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, the cloud backup destination is the most flexible and secure option. The external drive still works, though, if the amount of data is not large and you work with a single computer \u2013 or if you use it along with the cloud to store an additional copy of your data.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to Backup Files with MSP360 Backup software<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To ensure your files and folders remain safe and protected from data loss due to unforeseen circumstances, you need a reliable backup solution in place. MSP360 offers robust <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/backup\/file-backup-software\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">file backup software<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> designed for individuals, small businesses, and MSPs with diverse IT environments. Let\u2019s compare the available solutions based on different use cases:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MSP360 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/backup\/free-backup-software\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Free backup software<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: As the name implies, this solution is completely free of charge and is designed to meet the needs of home users with lower data volumes. With this solution, you can easily back up files on your Windows, macOS, or Linux endpoints.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MSP360 Backup Pro is a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/backup\/cloud-backup\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cloud backup solution for small businesses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a more advanced feature set that not only includes desktop backup but also adds backup for servers and virtual machines. This solution is suitable for businesses with up to five devices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MSP360 Managed Backup is an advanced <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/managed-backup\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MSP backup software<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with centralized management for multiple endpoints, helping MSPs efficiently manage their customers\u2019 diverse environments.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are 5 best practices on how to backup files\u00a0 files and folders with MSP360:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to keep data safe and ensure redundancy and protection from local disasters, you should follow the industry\u2019s golden standard known as the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule, which requires users to adhere to these simple principles:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, you should have at least three copies of your dataset, stored across two different types of storage media. This ensures that you always have a clean copy available in case something happens to your primary data source, and that your data remains accessible even if one of your storage devices fails.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, imagine your laptop crashes, and you lose a hard drive containing one of your backups. With the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/3-2-1-1-0-backup-rule\/\">3-2-1-1-0 rule<\/a> in place, you\u2019ll still have access to two additional copies of your data, with at least one stored safely in the cloud. MSP360 Backup can help you achieve this: our backup solutions support a bring-your-own-cloud approach, meaning you can connect to any cloud storage of your choice and store backups both locally and in the cloud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, at least one copy must be kept off-site in case your device is damaged or lost, and at least one copy should be immutable (locked from any alterations or deletions). With MSP360 Backup, you can enable a feature called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/immutable-backups\/\">object lock (immutability)<\/a> to store your data securely in the cloud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, you should verify your backups for completion with zero errors. In MSP360 Backup, you can do this in two ways: first, by using restore verification and consistency check features to confirm backup integrity and restorability. The second method is by reviewing Backup History reports, where you can see all backup statuses and gain clear visibility into any issues in case some backups were not completed successfully.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to Backup Files: Don\u2019t Use Disc C:\\<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using file-level backup for the C:\\ drive is generally considered a poor practice. A file backup is supposed to back up files and folders on the endpoint, while it doesn\u2019t save essential elements that are contained in C:\\ drive and that are required to perform a full recovery. This means that in case of a disaster, you won\u2019t be able to restore the system automatically and you\u2019ll have to reconfigure everything manually. Not only is this time-consuming, but also typically leads to malfunctions and misconfigurations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With MSP360 Backup, you can simply select files and folders you need to back up once you open the backup wizard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitor Backups Daily\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To ensure data protection and identify potential issues before they affect business operations, you should review backup schedules, identify overdue backups, monitor long-running backups, and verify backup completion status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s how you can track all these tasks in MSP360 Managed Backup: go to the <\/span><b>Computers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tab and locate the desired endpoint in the list. In the <\/span><b>Backup Plan Status<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> column, hover over the bar to view the statuses of all backup plans. If any of your backup plans completed with a warning or failed to complete, click the bar to open a slide-in panel with more detailed information. There, you can click the error code to learn more about the issue and how to fix it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automate Backups<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backup automation ensures that all data changes are captured and helps you meet your RTO (Recovery Time Objective), meaning your operations won\u2019t be disrupted if something goes wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These metrics determine how recent your backups need to be in order to maintain business continuity. With MSP360 Backup, you can tailor backup schedules to your specific needs and ensure your most critical data is always up to date. For example, you can configure backups to run daily at a specific time, exclude weekends if necessary, or schedule monthly backups only.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enable Notifications<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also strongly recommend enabling notifications for alerts and reviewing them daily to prevent potential issues. To enable notifications, navigate to the Settings tab, open the Notifications section, and configure alerts for backup and restore activities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here, you can set up notifications for backup and restore jobs that complete successfully or with warnings, define thresholds to receive alerts if no successful backups occur within a specified timeframe, and configure notifications to trigger only after two or more consecutive backup failures.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting Started with MSP360 Backup<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To start file backup in MSP360 Backup Free or MSP360 Backup Pro, open the backup agent, and find the <\/span><b>Files <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">button in the upper navigation. Once you click this button, a step-by-step backup plan wizard will appear and guide you through the process of backup plan creation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61503\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-67.png\" alt=\"How to Backup Files\" width=\"856\" height=\"666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-67.png 856w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-67-300x233.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-67-768x598.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-67-624x485.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 856px) 100vw, 856px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To start file backup in MSP360 Managed Backup, navigate to either <\/span><b>Computers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tab, or to the <\/span><b>Backup <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tab, <\/span><b>Computers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">section, find the required endpoint on the list and click the backup plan status bar in the <\/span><b>Backup Plan Status<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> column. In the slide-in that appears click the <\/span><b>Add new plan button<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and select <\/span><b>Files <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">backup plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61504\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-68.png\" alt=\"How to Backup Files\" width=\"756\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-68.png 756w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-68-300x137.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-68-624x286.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, follow the steps of the backup wizard to configure your backup plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conclusion on How to Backup Files<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you understand how to backup files and how MSP360 can help you to enhance your backup strategy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is difficult to imagine a business without any data stored in digital form and not having a solid plan on how to backup files. Commercial information, financial records, clients\u2019 private data, their orders, etc. \u2013 all this data is kept on computers or in the cloud and has to be backed up regularly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":61506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[877],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61489"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61509,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61489\/revisions\/61509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}