I look after servers for a company. OA systems, databases, NAS boxes, the lot. Backups at work are boring in the good way: proper software, proper rotation, somebody's job to check the logs. Mine.
The problem was my own machines, and the small offices I help out now and then. For those, I wanted something very specific:
- Back up every night, on a schedule, no human involved
- To a plain USB drive, because that's what small offices actually have
- And when the backup finishes, the drive disconnects itself
That last part is the whole point. Ransomware can't encrypt a drive that isn't there. Every backup tool I tried keeps the target mounted 24/7, which means the night your machine gets hit is the night your backups get hit too. They finish each other's sentences.
I looked around properly before writing any code. Veeam Agent is genuinely good and free, but the drive stays attached. Acronis wants to sell me a cloud suite. The NAS route works, but it means buying another box and becoming the person who maintains it. All I wanted was a backup that hangs up the phone when it's done talking.
So I built it. It's called RansomShield, and the idea fits in one sentence: backup runs, report goes out, drive letter disappears.
How it works on my own PC: a scheduled run copies the folders I picked to the USB drive, checks the result, sends me a report (email, or Feishu in my case), then removes the drive. If it spots files changing in ways that look like ransomware mid-run, it aborts and leaves the drive unmounted, so a bad night doesn't take the last good backup with it.
It's been running on my machine for months. I don't think about it most days, which is exactly what I wanted from it.
Some honest notes, because I'd rather say them here than have you find them:
Windows only. That's the world I work in.
It's not pretty. The installer has a wizard, the backup itself just runs and reports.
The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen will warn you on first install. The site shows the SHA-256 and how to get past the warning. A certificate is on my list; it isn't free, and neither am I yet.
It costs $9 a month or $79 a year per PC, because free turned out not to be a business model I can maintain in my spare hours.
I'm not a company with a marketing team. I'm the guy who resets your password and then goes home and writes backup software. If that trade sounds fair to you, the site is getransomshield.com. If it doesn't, the idea at the top of this post is free: whatever tool you use, don't leave the backup drive plugged in.
— Mario
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