🛡️ Bulletproof Backups

The risk of data loss threatens our valuable digital data - no smartphone, no PC, no data center is 100% safe! Prevent this from today on by data backups performed on site for quick recovery and kept offline to prevent ransomware attacks.

📋 Planning & Preparation

1. Read the FAQs to plan your backup strategy, recommended is the 3-2-1 rule.
2. Fetch hard drives with enough capacity from different vendors and models (maybe even rugged ones).
3. Check each hard drive for errors and use error-free ones only.
4. Label and rename each hard drive with an unique name, e.g. “Video backup #1 (4TB)”.
5. Download the repository (5.8MB), unzip it, and copy it as 📁bulletproof-backups folder onto each hard drive.
6. Optional: Check your file formats.
7. Set up a reminder in your digital calendar to perform the backup, e.g. every Friday.

▶️ Perform the Backup

1. Connect your mobile devices to the PC and copy photos into the Pictures folder, videos into the Videos folder, and so on.
2. Connect the next hard drive to the PC and open: bulletproof-backups > scripts.
3. Execute each appropriate script by double-clicking, e.g. 📄save_Home_folder.bat copies your entire home folder to the drive at: bulletproof-backups > DATA > Home_folder
4. Disconnect the hard drive properly and store it carefully in a separate and secure location.

🪂 Recover Your Data

1. Choose the hard drive with the latest(!) backup. Read your Logbook.csv files if in doubt.
2. Check the hard drive. Read the documents if it’s damaged.
3. Connect the hard drive to your PC and open folder 📁bulletproof-backups, then 📁DATA.
4. Copy or sync the missing or corrupted data back to your PC. DO NOT move the data! BE CAREFUL to set source and destination correct!
5. Disconnect the hard drive properly and store it carefully in a separate and secure location again.

💡 Hints

• At first a full backup is performed (slow for big data), but next time only changes get copied (extremely fast).
• No encryption is performed to keep it simple and robust. Use an encryption program and a vault to prevent unauthorized access.
• Logbook.csv gets updated automatically by the backup scripts (a table in .CSV format containing all the backup details).
• Test your backups regularly to ensure that they are working properly. Restore your backups to a test environment and check that all of your data can be accessed as expected.
• DISCLAIMER: All informations are given according to my best knowledge, but without guarantee.

🤝 Contributing

• Contributions, suggestions, and improvements are welcome!
• Open an Issue if you encounter bugs or have feature ideas.
• Create a Pull Request if you’d like to improve something.

📜 License & Copyright

This open source project is licensed under the CC0-1.0 license. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.