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Managing Your Data

Never again lose your data

I'm surprised at how often data loss happens to people and organizations given the various options which exist for managing your data, and how people and organizations only think about this issue after a data-loss event has occurred.

Ideally, or if you are an organization, you need to be following the "3-2-1 Backup Strategy" - 3 copies of your data, on 2 different storage mediums, and 1 copy offsite.

In this article I'm going to summarize a simple way to make sure you never lose your data again when using Windows 10, and how to implement the 3-2-1 strategy at home.

Make sure you have a Microsoft account

You will need to participate in the Microsoft ecosystem in order for this all to work as I describe. You probably are already doing so if you have a Windows 10 PC or an outlook.com or hotmail.com email address.

  • Go here to create or verify that you have a Microsoft account. Again you probably already created this when you set up your computer.
  • Hopefully you are logging in to your computer using this Microsoft account (not a local account). In Windows 10 search* for "Manage Your Account" to find more information about what you are using.

*search - the white box or magnifying glass in the lower left of your screen, to the right of the Start Button.

Use OneDrive!

What is OneDrive? OneDrive is a built-in storage system that synchronizes with the Microsoft cloud. Any files that you store in OneDrive are securely copied up to the cloud. Let me say that again (because it's amazing) - any files that you store in OneDrive are securely copied up to the cloud! If your laptop is stolen or if your hard drive crashes, these files will all be downloaded automatically once you recover or acquire a functional Windows 10 PC.

This is the key. You are going to store all the files you care about in Microsoft OneDrive. Note that you don't install applications or programs in OneDrive; this is where you put your files: your Word documents, your photos, your Turbotax files, your Quickbooks files, your homework files, your code files, etc.

  • If you have Windows 10, OneDrive is already installed on your PC. You just need to use it!
  • Open OneDrive (Start -> OneDrive, or Search -> OneDrive)
  • If this is the first time you have used OneDrive, it might ask you to Sign in. Do so using your Microsoft account (which we created or verified earlier).
  • After you have signed in and thereby linked your OneDrive to your Microsoft account you can now use OneDrive.
    • OneDrive appears as another node in File Explorer labeled "OneDrive" with a blue cloud next to it.
    • There will be a number of default folders created by OneDrive that you can use. However (recommended), I create my own folder called "DATA" under OneDrive and I then put all my files and subfolders under this one folder.
    • Try it! Copy some files into your OneDrive folder. They will automatically, securely, synch up to the cloud, associated to your Microsoft account.
    • This is all you need to do. You are now storing all of your files in two places, one of which is offsite.
    • Note that OneDrive offers a lot of functionality. I'll leave it to the reader to search and read further as needed.

How much stuff can I put in OneDrive?

  • The free version of OneDrive included with Windows 10 gives you 5 GB of cloud storage.
  • This is probably not enough if you want to store your photos in OneDrive, but might be Ok for just important files.
  • The best way to get more storage is to just add an Office subscription to your Microsoft account. This costs about $100 per year, gives you all of the Office applications, and increases your OneDrive storage to 1 terabyte (1000 GB). This is what I do.

What else?

  • You can access your OneDrive files via a web browser, after you log in with your Microsoft account.
  • You can access your OneDrive files on a mobile device if you install the OneDrive app. I use this to upload my photos from my iPhone to OneDrive.
  • Can I use OneDrive at work? Technically yes, but it depends on your organization's security policy and they have things configured.
  • Check out the "Personal Vault" feature if you want an extra layer of protection for certain sensitive files.

Seems like we are 2-2-1, not 3-2-1.

  • This is why I put all of my files in that one DATA folder we created in OneDrive. I then periodically copy that entire DATA folder to a local external hard drive, creating a third storage location. I have a 1TB Western Digital Passport that I use for this purpose.