Summary

Wrapping it all up

This is the final part of a short series of blog posts on the importance of backing up your data.

Introduction
The 3-2-1 Rule (or 50 ways to lose your data)
Local Hero
Spread it about
Offsite
Summary - this article

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Well done! You should now have a backup strategy in place that will protect you from pretty much anything.

To quickly summarise the advice:

Have a backup on your computer, automatically generated by your application. You can use this to immediately undo something that happens to whatever work you have in progress.
Keep a backup on a different disk - either a USB stick , external hard drive or something similar. Make sure your operating system ( MacOS or Windows ) creates and updates this automatically and regularly.
Have a cloud backup - Backblaze is my recommendation, but bear in mind that Sync applications like Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive are not true backup solutions, though they can make your workflow a lot easier.
Test your backups regularly! From time to time check that the files you expect to see are there, and do a download of one to make sure you know how to do it and that everything works as expected.

Following these simple steps (and really, the first three only need doing once!) will help ensure that your writing stays safe, no matter what the dangers.

Happy writing!