The reason most people don't have a backup isn't cost or complexity. It's that the task has no obvious first step, so it stays on the list indefinitely.
Here's the first step, and every step after it. Set aside an hour. Most of that hour is waiting.
What you need before you start
An external drive, at least twice the capacity of the data you're backing up. Twice, because backup software keeps historical versions and needs room for them — a drive exactly the size of your data will fill within weeks and start deleting old versions.
Check how much you're actually using first. Right-click your main drive and look at used space; that's your baseline. If you're using 400GB, buy 1TB or more.
Optionally, a cloud backup subscription. Different from cloud storage — a backup service retains version history, keeps deleted files for long periods, and is designed to restore a whole machine. You can add this later; the local drive is the urgent part.
Minutes 0–10: Decide what you're protecting
Open a text file and answer three questions.
Where do your files actually live? Documents folder, desktop, a cloud sync folder, an external drive with your photo library, a separate drive for video projects. List every location. This is the step that prevents the classic failure of backing up the wrong folder for two years.
What's irreplaceable? Photos of people, financial records, contracts, identity documents, business files, personal projects. This list determines what needs the most protection.
What's local-only? Anything not in a synced cloud folder — application databases, photo library packages, video projects, virtual machines. These are the most exposed, because nothing else is protecting them.
Keep this file. It becomes your inventory, and you'll want it again.
Minutes 10–20: Turn on the built-in backup
Both major operating systems include backup software that's adequate for most people, free, and already installed.
On a Mac: plug in the drive. The system will usually offer to use it for Time Machine; accept. If not, go to the Time Machine settings, select the disk, and turn it on. Encrypt the backup when prompted — and store that password in your password manager, because an encrypted backup with a lost password is a paperweight.
On Windows: plug in the drive. Look for the backup settings in system settings — File History for file-level backup with version history, or the system image tool for a full drive image. Turn on File History and select the drive. Then check which folders are included; the defaults cover the standard user folders but will miss anything stored elsewhere.
On either: add the locations from your list that aren't covered by default. This is the step people skip, and it's why a backup that's been running for a year turns out not to include the photo library.
Start the first backup. It will take hours. Leave it running and continue.
Minutes 20–30: Configure exclusions
Excluding the right things makes backups faster and stops the drive filling with garbage.
Exclude:
- Downloads folder — high churn, low value
- Cache and temporary folders from applications
- Virtual machine disk images, unless you specifically need them — they're huge and change entirely on every use
- Cloud sync folders, if and only if you're confident about what the cloud service is protecting. Usually better to include them; sync isn't backup and the local backup is what gives you history.
- Software installers and downloaded media you could re-acquire
- Rendering and build output — anything a computer generated and can generate again
Don't exclude:
- Anything you can't recreate
- Application settings and configuration
- Your email data file, if you use a desktop mail client
Minutes 30–40: Set up the off-site copy
The local drive covers hardware failure. It does not cover fire, flood, or theft. You need a second copy elsewhere, and there are two routes.
Route A: cloud backup service. Install it, sign in, choose what to back up, let it run. The first upload takes days or weeks depending on your connection and library size, which is fine — it runs in the background. Set it and forget it.
Choose the same folders as your local backup, or a subset if bandwidth is constrained. If you have to choose, protect the irreplaceable list first.
Route B: a second physical drive stored elsewhere. Copy your irreplaceable pile to it, take it to a relative's house or your workplace, and set a calendar reminder to swap it monthly.
Route B is free after the drive and works on any connection. Route A requires no discipline. If you know yourself to be bad at recurring manual tasks, pay for route A.
Ideally, both.
Minutes 40–50: Set up phone backup
Your phone holds the photos, and it's the device most likely to be lost, stolen, or dropped.
iPhone: Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Backup, on. Verify the last successful backup date, not just that the toggle is on. Backups need power, Wi-Fi, and a locked screen — if yours hasn't run in weeks, that's why.
Android: Settings → Google → Backup, on. Check that photo backup is also on in the Photos app, since these are separate systems.
Both: if you're short on cloud storage, this will be silently failing. Fix the storage or reduce what's included.
Add a periodic manual copy of your photo library to your computer or an external drive. Phone cloud backups are real backups, but they're inside one account, and account loss takes them with it.
Minutes 50–60: Verify
The most important ten minutes.
Check the local backup completed. Look at the backup software's status and the date of the last successful run.
Restore one file. Not check the interface — actually restore something and open it. Pick a document, restore it to your desktop, open it, confirm the contents are correct.
This finds: drives that aren't actually writing, encrypted backups whose password doesn't work, files that backed up empty, and software that reports success while doing nothing. All of these are more common than they should be.
Set two calendar reminders:
- Monthly: check backup status, swap the off-site drive
- Annually: restore test, and review what's included
After the hour: what happens next
The first local backup finishes overnight. The first cloud upload may take a week or more. Neither needs your attention.
Then unplug the drive. This is the detail that matters most and takes no effort: a drive that's always connected is reachable by ransomware and by any software problem that reaches your computer. Plug it in weekly, let the backup run, unplug it.
If that discipline won't hold, leave it connected — an always-connected backup is far better than none. But the unplugged version is meaningfully safer.
Common problems
"The backup drive filled up." Either it's too small, or you're backing up something huge you didn't intend to. Check exclusions first, buy a larger drive second.
"Backups keep failing." Usually a drive formatting issue, a permissions problem, or a failing drive. Check the drive's health; if the software reports errors, replace it rather than diagnosing.
"It's slowing my computer down." Schedule it for hours you're not working, or lower its priority if the software allows.
"I don't know if it's still running." This is why the monthly reminder exists. Backup software fails silently more often than any other category of software.
The result
At the end of the hour you have: a local automated backup with version history, an off-site copy in progress, phone backup verified, one successful test restore, and two reminders in the calendar.
That's the whole thing. It's not sophisticated, and sophistication isn't what protects data — running, verified, and off-site is what protects data.
Next in this series: Time Machine vs File History: Backing Up Mac and Windows