We still get a lot of people coming into the shop who don’t have any backups done, so I would like to revisit an old topic – backing up your data – as it is extremely important to keep your precious information safe.
To recap; a data backup is a technical-sounding way of saying ‘a copy’. If you have your pictures in more than one place, then you have a backup. There’s no simpler explanation to backing up than that.
There are many different ways to backup, so it may seem a bit daunting to know where to even begin, but here I will lay out some of the simple and effective ways to back up.
1) USB Stick/Flash Drive/Pen Drive: These are small memory sticks that plug into the rectangular USB socket of your computer. They can hold lots of information in a small space and a solid choice for storing smaller data such as photos.
2) USB Hard Drive: The bigger brother of the USB Stick, they hold ten to twenty times as much information and are a great solution if you have lots of high-impact data, such as videos.
3) Cloud Storage: This technology entails storing your data online. The benefit to this is that there is no initial cost, as you do not need to buy anything to get started. Most Cloud Storage providers have a free system in place and a paid version you can use if you have a lot of data to store.
Generally, the way to perform a backup is the same principle:
Plug the backup device in.
Open the folder you keep your documents in (pictures, music, videos, etc).
Right click on the folder and select ‘copy’.
Open the backup device
Right click, and select ‘paste’.
Once you have picked a backup solution and copied your data to it, remember to keep it updated regularly! A backup that is 6 months out of date is almost as bad as no backup at all!
I personally keep my vital documents in Cloud Storage and then also copy it onto a USB Stick every week. This ensures that I have three copies; one on my Computer, one on my USB Stick, and one in The Cloud.
Remember – Everybody that has lost data have one thing in common: They weren’t prepared for it!