Proton Drive

Nowadays, it's crucial to establish a strategy to ensure the accessibility, security, and backup of your personal files, such as your personal documents, photos, or important projects. Losing these data can be catastrophic.

To prevent these issues, I advise maintaining multiple backups of your files on different media. A commonly used strategy in computing is the "3-2-1" backup strategy, which ensures the protection of your files:

In other words, it's advisable to store your files in 3 different locations, using different types of media, such as your computer, an external hard drive, a USB stick, or an online storage service. And finally, having an offsite copy means you should have a backup stored outside of your home or business. This last point helps to avoid the total loss of your files in case of local disasters such as fires or floods. An external copy, distant from your home or business, ensures that your data will survive regardless of local risks.

To facilitate the implementation of the 3-2-1 backup strategy, you can use an online storage service. These solutions, commonly referred to as "cloud," offer additional protection by storing your data on secure servers accessible from any device. The term "cloud" simply refers to the storage of data on external servers.

Many people use the storage solutions of major digital companies: Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Apple iCloud. These solutions are convenient for daily use and ensure the accessibility of your data, but they do not ensure confidentiality. In this tutorial, I propose to discover another solution, just as easy to use as the storage tools of Big Tech, but with additional measures to protect your privacy. This solution is Proton Drive, the online storage tool from the Swiss company Proton. We will also see how to easily implement a 3-2-1 strategy suitable for daily use.

Proton Drive is an intriguing solution for online storage because it combines ease of use with security for your files. Unlike traditional cloud services from tech giants, Proton Drive implements measures to protect your privacy. It ensures end-to-end encryption for all your files, meaning even Proton's teams cannot access your data. Moreover, Proton Drive is open-source, allowing independent experts to freely audit the software's code. Proton's business model is based on a subscription system, which is reassuring as it indicates that the company is funded without necessarily exploiting its users' data. In this tutorial, I will explain how to use the free version of Proton Drive, but there are also several subscription levels offering more features. This business model is preferable to a free system in the style of Big Tech, which might lead one to wonder if our personal data is being used for profit. This does not seem to be the case with Proton.

Proton Drive offers much more than simple storage options; it also allows sharing, editing, and collaborating on documents online with editing tools, similar to Google's software suite.

Regarding pricing, the free version offers up to 5 GB of storage and includes essential features. To extend capabilities to 200 GB of storage, a specific subscription to Proton Drive is available for 4 € per month. The Proton Unlimited package, on the other hand, offers for 10 € per month a storage space of up to 500 GB on Proton Drive, in addition to including all of Proton's paid services, such as the VPN and password manager, as well as additional benefits on free tools (email and calendar).

If you do not yet have a Proton account, you will need to create one. I refer you to our Proton Mail tutorial in which we explain in detail how to create a free Proton account and set it up:

Once logged into your Proton mail, click on the icon with four small squares at the top left of the screen. Then click on "Drive". You are now on your Proton Drive.

To add files to your Proton Drive, when you are exclusively using the web version (we will discuss the use of the local version later), you simply need to drag and drop your documents directly into the interface. You can then find your document on the homepage. To add a new item, click on the "New" button at the top left of the screen. The "Upload file" function opens your local file explorer, allowing you to select and import new documents to Proton Drive, just as you would by dragging and dropping. "Upload folder" allows you to import an entire folder. "New folder" enables you to create a folder to better organize your documents on Proton Drive. Click on this option, assign a name to your folder. Then you will find it directly on the homepage of Proton Drive. Finally, "New document" allows you to create a new text document directly in Proton Drive. By clicking on it, a new blank document opens. You can write on it and edit it. If you click on the "Share" button at the top right, you can share the document. You just need to enter the email of the contributor whom you wish to give access to the document, either in read-only mode or with editing rights. If you go back to your Proton Drive, you can see that the document has been saved successfully. In the "Shared" tab, you can find the documents that you have shared with others. And in the "Shared with me" tab, you can see the documents that others have shared with you. Finally, in the "Trash" tab, you can find your recently deleted documents. Most settings for your Proton Drive are integrated into your Proton account. For detailed instructions on setting up your account, I invite you to consult this tutorial:

Proton Drive also offers software that enables the synchronization of your local files with your online storage space. This feature facilitates and automates the implementation of our 3-2-1 backup strategy. With the Proton Drive software, you obtain 2 synchronized copies of your files: one on your computer and the other on Proton's servers, thus fulfilling the criteria of 2 media types and off-site backup. You will simply need to create a third copy, which we will set up later. To use the software, click on the "Computers" tab on your Proton Drive account and select the button corresponding to your operating system to proceed with the download. Once installed, you will need to sign in to unlock your account, then click on "Sign in". Select the local files you wish to synchronize with your Proton Drive. For example, I have selected only the "Proton Backup" folder. Then click on the "Continue" button. You will then arrive at the software interface, which is similar to the web application. From now on, you will have a folder titled "Proton Drive" locally on your computer, which will gather all your documents stored on Proton online. If you add a file to this folder from your computer, you will automatically find it on the homepage of the Proton Drive web application, and vice versa. For the folders you chose to synchronize during the software installation, you can also find them online by going to the "Computers" section of Proton Drive and then selecting your computer. Thus, all your files are backed up and synchronized both locally on your machine and on Proton Drive's online servers.

If you have followed the previous steps, you now have 2 distinct backup locations for your important files. To complete our 3-2-1 backup strategy, we need to add a third copy. I suggest you perform this additional backup on an external medium, such as an external hard drive or a USB stick, for example. Depending on the intensity of your usage, set an appropriate backup update frequency (weekly, monthly, semi-annually...). At each chosen interval, you will need to download the entirety of your Proton Drive to back up the data on the chosen external medium. In this way, even in the event of the theft of your computer and the simultaneous destruction of Proton's servers, you will still maintain secure access to your files thanks to the copy on the USB stick.

To do this, go to your Proton Drive. Select all of your files. Then click on the small arrow to download them. We will then repeat the operation with our files synchronized from our computer. You will then find .zip files in your downloads. Simply connect the external medium of your choice to your computer, and then transfer these files to it. If you are concerned that this USB stick might be stolen, consider encrypting it with software such as VeraCrypt (we will make a tutorial on this software soon).

Congratulations, you now have a very robust 3-2-1 backup strategy, which allows you to drastically reduce the risk of losing access to your personal documents, whatever the circumstances. By choosing Proton Drive for your online backups, you also benefit from end-to-end encryption, which guarantees the protection of your privacy.

To learn more about securing your online presence and avoiding hacking, I also recommend consulting our detailed tutorial on the Bitwarden password manager: