Please Do a Proper Backup of Your Information
I've spent years fixing point-of-sale problems for SMB retailers, and I can tell you that all lost data disasters come down to one thing: no real backup. A computer is a mechanical device, and mechanical devices fail. When that happens, what happens to the years of information you've built up? In this guide, I'll walk you through what actually works, based on what I've seen go wrong in real shops.
Key Takeaways
- Computer hardware failure is the leading cause of lost retail data.
- USB drives left plugged into a till get destroyed by the exact same fire, flood, or theft that destroys the computer.
- Free OneDrive cloud backup gives you an automatic, off-site copy of your POS database.
- Retail is one of the most common targets for ransomware.
- Use the 3-2-1 backup rule to protect your business.
- Australian tax law requires you to keep business records, including backups, for at least five years.
- Regular test restores are the only reliable way to know your backup actually works.
Yesterday, one of our clients had a small fire. The computer was destroyed, and the backup on a USB stick sitting in the computer was cooked. Their information is probably gone for good. We are trying to save the hard drive. What you need in your shop at all times is a proper backup system, something to keep a copy of your information safe if something goes wrong.
We can send a new computer out with fresh software installed within a day or two. Insurance may pay for it, but what no one can replace is the years of information stored on your computer.
Your POS system is your information hub. From my experience, most lost information comes down to computer hardware failing. When your computer stops working, you lose access to everything stored on it. For example, if your debtors list only lives on your till, a single hardware failure could leave you with no idea who owes you money or how much. Now add the loss of your stock quantities, sales history, and supplier records on top of that, and you've got a genuine crisis on your hands. To stop this from happening to you, there are three questions worth asking yourself honestly:
Here Are Some Questions You Need to Answer
- How much information are you willing to lose? A day's worth? An hour's worth?
- How fast do you need your data back? This is what we call your Recovery Time Objective.
- How much are you actually prepared to pay for this protection?
In my experience, most retailers find daily backups sufficient. They're willing, in the worst case, to lose one day of trading data. Retailers who feel they need tighter protection generally have to stop trading briefly during the day to run a quick manual backup. Some businesses want continuous, real-time backup, but that's not cheap, and in practice it can get messy fast.
Let's go through the common backup methods retailers actually use, starting with the one I recommend most often. Here is a table of the pros and cons of each:
| Backup Method | Cost | Off-Site Protection | Ransomware Risk | Best Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USB drive | Low, one-off | None (if left plugged in) | High | Quick file transfers |
| Free OneDrive | Free | Yes | Medium (free tier) | Daily automatic backup |
| Paid OneDrive (M365) | Subscription | Yes | Low (with ransomware detection) | Full protection |
| External SSD (rotated off-site) | Moderate, one-off | Yes (if rotated) | Low (if disconnected) | Local + off-site mix |
How Does Our Free OneDrive Cloud Backup Work?
Our free OneDrive cloud backup is a built-in feature that automatically copies your POS database to secure cloud storage, at no extra cost or effort on your part. There are other cloud services our clients use, but out of everything I've tested, Microsoft OneDrive gives the best mix of reliability, security, and ease of use. Setting it up doesn't take long through your POS software settings. Once it's switched on, the backup runs quietly in the background after each trading day closes, so nobody has to remember to do anything.
The big advantage of a cloud solution like this is that it stores your backup files completely off-site, away from your shop. That's exactly what protects you against fire, flood, or theft, because your files simply aren't in the building when disaster strikes. What I also like is that you can access your information from anywhere, whether you're at home or at the shop. It's genuinely handy if you do any of your admin work from home.
What I find is that cloud backups cut business downtime greatly, as our hardware department can obtain a copy of your data immediately. We can set up an emergency computer and have it shipped to you, often on the same day.
Free, off-site, and automatic. That's a hard combination to beat.
What You Still Need to Watch With OneDrive
Setting up OneDrive doesn't mean you can switch your brain off completely. You still need to monitor it regularly to make sure your Microsoft account has enough free storage space, since OneDrive's free tier has quite limited storage. You also need to test it regularly to confirm the backup file actually works properly. We had a client whose OneDrive backups, we discovered, were only capturing part of their information, silently, for months.
A simple method I've found works well in practice is backing up your till's information to a second computer in the shop, then using that second machine to run the OneDrive backup. This approach doesn't fully protect you against ransomware, although it does help. To get full protection on OneDrive, you need to use a paid OneDrive subscription. Many retailers use Microsoft 365, which includes such a paid subscription. OneDrive also uses a fair amount of your computer's processing power, which is another reason I recommend running the OneDrive backup from a separate machine, and it will chew through your internet data too. If you're on a small internet plan, this setup simply won't work well for you.
USB Drives for Backup
USB drives are the most common backup method retailers use, and they're fast, portable, and cheap. They're genuinely useful tools, they don't rely on any ongoing subscription fees, and they don't need an internet connection to work at all.
The Serious Drawbacks for Retail Backup
Today, there are too many cheap USB drives being sold, and while not every cheap USB stick uses low-quality parts, plenty do. One client bought some on eBay, and they worked fine for a few uses before failing completely. Be careful where you buy them, and don't assume a low price means a bargain.
This ties into a bigger issue: all USB drives have a limited life expectancy, and older drives become steadily less reliable over time. That's not a huge problem by itself, since they're cheap to replace. The real problem is that a USB stick usually doesn't warn you when it has failed. You might genuinely believe you're backing up your data every night, when you're not backing up anything useful at all. Any backup system needs regular checking, and USB sticks are no exception to that rule.
In practice, I see people leaving USB drives plugged into the till all day. If the computer is stolen or destroyed, that USB drive goes with it. Do not do this.
How Does Ransomware Target USB and Cloud Backups?
Ransomware today mostly targets small and medium businesses, and retail is one of its favourite hunting grounds. "The retail and trade sector accounted for approximately one-third of all critical ransomware incidents recorded nationally — Source: Australian Cyber Security Centre, 2023". Once ransomware gets into your system, it will attack everything it can reach if you let it.
What ransomware actually does, once it's inside your computer, is search for everything connected: external hard drives, USB sticks, and shared online folders. Then it locks all of it at once. Both free-tier OneDrive and a USB stick plugged into your till are easy targets for this kind of attack. Once your files are locked, your computer is effectively useless unless you pay the ransom, and even then there's no guarantee.
This is exactly why the 3-2-1 system exists.
How Does the 3-2-1 Backup Rule Protect a Business?
The 3-2-1 backup rule protects your business by making sure you always have three copies of your data, stored across two different types of storage, with one copy kept permanently off-site. This well-known rule means no single fire, flood, or cyberattack can wipe out every copy of your data at once.
Have Three Backups at All Times
Keeping three separate backups means that if something goes wrong with one copy, you've still got two others to fall back on. This redundancy is what actually saves your business when disaster strikes.
Store Backups on Two Different Types of Storage
Using different storage types means that if one kind of backup develops a fault, you've got a completely different system to fall back on in an emergency. For instance, a USB drive and a cloud backup fail in totally different ways, so relying on both gives you protection a single storage type can't. Mixing storage types is one of the simplest ways to remove a single point of failure from your business.
Keep One Copy Off-Site at All Times
An off-site backup protects your data because it's physically cut off from your shop's computer network, so hackers, ransomware, and power surges simply can't reach it. For example, a rotated external drive kept at home, or a cloud backup like OneDrive, both satisfy this rule in different ways. Being disconnected from your local network is the single strongest protection you have against a targeted cyberattack.
Why Should You Run Regular Backup Test Drills?
You should run regular backup test drills because it's the only reliable way to know how your backup will actually perform before you're forced to rely on it in a real emergency. There's no getting out of this step, no matter how confident you feel about your current setup. I've seen backups that looked perfectly fine on paper fail completely the moment someone actually tried to restore them.
Every few months, take the time to restore a recent backup onto a spare computer and check that everything opens properly.
What Does Australian Law Say About Backing Up Your Data?
Under Australian tax law, you're legally required to keep business records, including backups, for at least five years. If your backups fail for any reason and you can't produce the records the ATO asks for, you can face penalties or have deductions denied outright . One client of mine found this out the hard way recently, telling the ATO he couldn't confirm certain figures because he had no backup of his data, and it proved genuinely expensive.
"Businesses must keep records of all transactions relating to their tax, super, and registration obligations for five years Source: Australian Taxation Office, 2026"
This isn't just a good idea. It's a legal obligation, and the ATO explicitly recommends keeping an off-site or cloud copy of your records as part of meeting that obligation.
Conclusion: Protect Your Shop Before Disaster Strikes
Point of sale system disaster recovery isn't optional. It's a basic part of running a safe, stable retail business. The fire that hit our client this week could happen to any shop, on any day, with no warning at all.
Your insurance will replace a burnt-out till overnight, but it won't replace years of sales records, customer accounts, or supplier invoices. Take the time this week to turn on your free OneDrive backup, stop relying solely on that USB stick in the back of your till, and build yourself a proper 3-2-1 backup routine. It takes minutes to set up, and it's the difference between a bad day and a business-ending disaster.
Written by:
Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.
