Frequent backup of your codes and files is an important habit one should cultivate, especially if you are a software developer. Unfortunately, this is a forgotten trait, particularly for newcomers. Acquiring this habit will save you from time to time, and probably your job.

Having frequent and multiple backups in the past saved me a lot of time in events such as accidental overwrites of codes, accidental deletion of files, and encountering bugs that necessitate a rollback to the last working version. This habit has saved me a lot of hours and even days.

Just recently, I accidentally overwrote my Python script that I had worked on for almost the whole day with another bash script while doing a file copy. Due to fatigue, I entered the wrong parameters for the file copy. Thankfully I had a version that was an hour old and I could work off from that.

That has not always been the case since I started as a software developer. Back then, backup was an afterthought for a foolish young man like me and I paid the price occasionally after losing hours to days of work due to some accident. I had to burn through the night and redo everything that was lost. It was a painful process.

Aside from making frequent backups, there is no harm in making multiple copies of a backup either. This was especially true in the age of floppy disks where storage reliability (even for hard disks at times) was much to be desired. I would be left in frustration after finding out my only backup was corrupted and I have to re-do my codes again.

There are many options for you to perform backup tasks. They can range from basic file backup solutions to file versioning control. Just choose something that you are comfortable with and roll with it.

• Task Scheduler to run command line backup scripts

• 3rd Party Automated Backup Solutions

• Cloud Solutions

• Git

• Network Attached Storage / External Storage Devices

• Others

Lastly, there can never be too much backup copies as long as you organise them properly.