How long should I keep backups?

[JohnQ]

I bought an external hard drive for this so I am planning on keeping them as long as I need and only deleting them once I no longer have a need for them. If I run out of space then I guess I will start deleting them as needed.

I do like to keep them for several months at least.

 

[Kania]

I bought an external hard drive for this so I am planning on keeping them as long as I need and only deleting them once I no longer have a need for them. If I run out of space then I guess I will start deleting them as needed.

I do like to keep them for several months at least.

I have thought about getting an external hard drive for this purpose and I might do that. There are some good deals on 1TB hard drives I have found. That way I can have plenty of storage and keep my backups as long as possible.

 

[Chi Doan]

For my site, I run back up every 2 days, and keep only last 10 backups file.

 

[Kania]

For my site, I run back up every 2 days, and keep only last 10 backups file.

Then you only keep about 2 weeks of backups?

 

[ulterios]

As a general rule I don't have a set time for how long I keep the backups for my sites. I keep them long after they are needed, just in case something ever arises where I might need them for something.

I have some that are a couple of years old. I always go by the "Don't get rid of it if there's a chance you ever might need it" philosophy.

I have had a couple of times where I needed a backup from an old site just to check some things for another or new site.

If you have somewhere to store them then save them until you are completely sure that you will never need them for anything.

 

[Kania]

As a general rule I don't have a set time for how long I keep the backups for my sites. I keep them long after they are needed, just in case something ever arises where I might need them for something.

I have some that are a couple of years old. I always go by the "Don't get rid of it if there's a chance you ever might need it" philosophy.

I have had a couple of times where I needed a backup from an old site just to check some things for another or new site.

If you have somewhere to store them then save them until you are completely sure that you will never need them for anything.

That sounds good but I really don't know how to tell 100% when I will never need them anymore. I think as long as I have a couple of backups then I will not need any more.

 

[Maria Marketing]

Are you worried about the space that you have to keep your backups in? If not then you can keep them as long as you think you might need them. I have backups that are a year old.

 

[Kania]

Are you worried about the space that you have to keep your backups in? If not then you can keep them as long as you think you might need them. I have backups that are a year old.

I am a little but not too much. I just don't want to keep things if I will have no uses for them.

 

[Chi Doan]

Then you only keep about 2 weeks of backups?

Yes it's, because we have to paid for cloud storage. If we keep a lot, a huge money spend for this

 

[Kania]

Yes it's, because we have to paid for cloud storage. If we keep a lot, a huge money spend for this

Ok I understand. I would not keep them very long if I was paying for the storage of mine. That sounds like a good idea.

 

[Maria Marketing]

I am a little but not too much. I just don't want to keep things if I will have no uses for them.

I understand that but just make sure you will never need them again. a friend of mine deleted his backups because he thought he had some others but he later found out he didn't have them and he had to do a lot of work to fix some things.

 

[Kania]

I understand that but just make sure you will never need them again. a friend of mine deleted his backups because he thought he had some others but he later found out he didn't have them and he had to do a lot of work to fix some things.

I will probably keep them longer than I need for an emergency anyway. I see some stories about people losing their whole site and that scares me.

 

[Maria Marketing]

I will probably keep them longer than I need for an emergency anyway. I see some stories about people losing their whole site and that scares me.

I have seen some of those stories also. I read one some time back that said an affiliate marketer had someone hack his site and deleted the whole thing including his backups in his hosting control panel. He did not have any backups anywhere else and is now losing $10,000 per month in missed affiliate sales. He is rebuilding his whole site.

 

[Kania]

I have seen some of those stories also. I read one some time back that said an affiliate marketer had someone hack his site and deleted the whole thing including his backups in his hosting control panel. He did not have any backups anywhere else and is now losing $10,000 per month in missed affiliate sales. He is rebuilding his whole site.

Oh no! Losing that much money per month would be catastrophic. I will always make sure I have plenty of backups and if I am making that much money I would have many backups in case.

 

[Maria Marketing]

Oh no! Losing that much money per month would be catastrophic. I will always make sure I have plenty of backups and if I am making that much money I would have many backups in case.

Yes it would be and if it was me I would be very upset. If I lost mine I would only lose a little money but a huge amount of money would be very upsetting. That's why we need to keep backups until we are certain we will never need them.

 

[Kania]

Yes it would be and if it was me I would be very upset. If I lost mine I would only lose a little money but a huge amount of money would be very upsetting. That's why we need to keep backups until we are certain we will never need them.

I read a blog post a couple of days ago that recommended keeping your backups for at least 3 months. I might do that so I am safe if I need older ones.

 

[Maria Marketing]

I read a blog post a couple of days ago that recommended keeping your backups for at least 3 months. I might do that so I am safe if I need older ones.

I saw an article once that said to keep them for a year. That seems like a little longer than needed. I think that keeping them for 3 months should be fine.

 

[Kania]

I saw an article once that said to keep them for a year. That seems like a little longer than needed. I think that keeping them for 3 months should be fine.

I think a year is a lot longer than you will need ever. I think I am just going to try to keep them for 3 months and see from there.

 

[Maria Marketing]

I think a year is a lot longer than you will need ever. I think I am just going to try to keep them for 3 months and see from there.

That will probably be fine unless you do not update your blog often or add new posts often. Then you should keep them longer if that is the case.

 

[albino]

I have been making backups of my blog and keeping them on my computer and on my web hosting and I was wondering how long I should keep them for.

How long is recommended for keeping backups of my blog?

I make them every week or before I do any updates or make big changes so I am starting to get many of them and I do not want to fill up the hard drive on my computer.

Thank you for help.

I hope that I could really catch up or give you good advice on your problem, but I think you can store unlimited data on your google account if I am not mistaken, like pictures and blog draft. You can use it also as your back up, so that you computer hard drive will have more space again. And if you are familiar with Zipped files you can download it also online to reduce the size of your files and combine it in a single Zip folder.