Backup your Files, ideally in multiple locations, are essential if you don’t want to lose any data. Your documents, images, and videos can disappear if something happens to your computer. It’s also a good idea to have at least one of your backups off-site; If a fire destroys your home, it will probably destroy your backup drive as well.
Most of us know this. The problem is that paying for a dedicated backup service seems silly if you’re already paying for cloud storage. After all, most cloud providers offer more space than the average user knows what to do with. The Microsoft 365 family plan comes with 6 terabytes of storage, for example, while the Google One premium plan offers 2 TB. If you don’t need all that space for your documents and photos, why not use some of it to back up your entire computer?
duplicates is a free and open source application that allows you to backup any computer to cloud services such as Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive. It supports more than 20 storage options, so there’s a good chance you already have a good backup destination. Even better: Duplicati encrypts your files before backing them up, meaning the cloud service provider you’re using has no ability to access your data.
In our article on how to backup your digital life we briefly mentioned Duplicati as an alternative to commercial backup services, but we didn’t really delve into how to use it.
Starting with duplicates
Duplicati is available for free. The home page will ask you to register for an account, but you don’t need to do so. you can just download the app from the website either from Github. Installation is simple on both Windows and macOS.
After installation, you will see a new icon in the Windows system tray or Mac menu bar.
Courtesy of Duplicati