Can Human Diligence Replace Backup Software?

So your budget is tight and you want to save a few dollars. You're looking for ways to cut expenses wherever you can and you find yourself asking, can human diligence replace the need for backup software? Can you back up all of your files manually without the need for a specialized computer program? If you're wondering whether or not manual backup can replace the benefits of a backup and recovery package there are some things you need to know.

First and foremost you need to understand that now matter how good you are with computers and how self-disciplined you may be, you will never be able to do everything a good backup program can. Even if you could, by some miracle, fully back up all of the information on your hard drive without the aid of  quality backup software, how much time would it take you to do it? By the time you're done backing up all of that information new data would probably have been added to your hard drive and you'd have to start the process all over again. Do you really want to dedicate all of the hours in your day to the backup of your computer hard drive?

Another thing you have to remember when wondering if manual backup can replace computer backup programs is that the best backup software products don't just make copies of the files on your hard drive. If you were to lose your computer you could set up a new one in just moments, restoring all of the files, settings and programs you need with the click of a mouse.

So, to answer the question, can you personally do everything that a backup and recovery program can do? No, you can't. It is not humanly possible to combine automatic backups of files and settings with file recovery and management in a matter of minutes. If you truly want to protect the information on your hard drive backup software is the only way to do it.