Backup, Recovery & Your Security Plan

A cloud drive or photo library often keeps deleted files and older versions for a limited window — commonly around 30 days. That is real protection and worth using. It is still narrower than a backup: the window is short, it usually covers only that one folder or library, and it can be affected if the account itself is compromised. Use it, but do not treat it as your only copy.

A common home setup is your computer’s built-in backup writing to a plugged-in external drive (fast to set up and restore), plus an automatic cloud backup for the separate offsite copy (kept current without remembering to plug anything in). A drive left permanently connected can be reached by the same ransomware that reaches your computer, so disconnecting it between backups — or using a service that keeps versions you cannot overwrite — closes that gap. A large cloud restore takes longer because everything comes back over your internet connection.

A good backup keeps a series of copies over time — yesterday, last week, last month — so you can step back to before a problem started rather than restoring the damage. Professionals describe this with two questions: how long until you are working again, and how much recent work you could lose (sometimes called recovery time and recovery point). If files are ever locked by ransomware, the safest order is to disconnect the device from the network, avoid deleting or reinstalling anything yet, get help to choose a known-good copy, clean or rebuild the device first, and then restore — changing important passwords afterward from a different, trusted device.