Three Ways To Backup Your Computer

Close your eyes for a minute. Now, imagine what you would do if you opened your eyes to see all of the files on your laptop or desktop computer or PDA had disappeared! All of your files, programs, pictures, all of your reports, important documents- everything- gone!

What would you do?

Not a pleasant thought, is it? In fact, it’s horrifying. People tend not to think about backing up their data, assuming that something like this will never happen to them. In most cases, it won’t but it could very easily. Your computer could be hit with a nasty virus, wiping your hard drive clean. Or you could drop your PDA or portable hard drive, making it inoperable.

Regardless of how it happens, you should make regular backups of your hard drive on a daily or weekly basis. Here are some data backup options which are easy to use and affordable.

Media Backup Solutions

There are a plethora of media on the market today which we can store data on. While CDs are an option, DVDs are preferable due to their durability and the amount of data you can store on a single DVD. The typical DVD can hold around 4.7 GB of data. That’s a lot if you plan on just backing up documents and/or picture files. If there are files that you need to make backups of on a regular basis, then you should look into rewritable DVDs. This way you can just use the same DVD to backup your data on. But what if your backup needs require something more than a single or couple of DVDs? Then you may want to think about these hardware solutions.

Hardware Backup Solutions

Just like with the media solutions, there are a couple of hardware choices to consider. If you want to be able to take your data or backup data with you to use on other computers, then look into purchasing a Flash drive. A Flash drive comes in a variety of sizes (from 2 GB all the way to 16 GB), and fits in the palm of your hand. A Flash drive is both PC and Mac compatible, and connects to any computer or device with a USB port. Think of a Flash drive as a mini hard drive. You can not only use it to store data but you can also run programs off of it. These are great if you do a lot of work on the road, or if you do a lot of work between two or more computers. But for storage, they are handy because you can backup your data on one and carry it on you wherever you go.

But what if you have more than 16 GBs of data to backup? Then you should consider investing in an external hard drive. Video files are notoriously large in file size. So if you have a lot of videos (along with other files which you need to store and backup), then you should consider splurging on an external hard drive with the largest capacity you can afford. External hard drives which can hold a terabyte of data (or 1,000 GBs) are becoming more common and affordable (prices range between $100 to $250).

Online Storage Solutions

Online storage is another viable option for storing and backing up your data. This is a growing market which means there are a lot of choices out there with those choices having different storage plans- some free, some not. I use and recommend online storage companyMozy. They offer a very easy-to-use online backup system for only $4.95 a month. You have an unlimited number of backups, and you can schedule when you want to have your files backed up.

The Three Backups Rule

Now that we have covered what the options are, which ones should you use?

Having just one backup is not good enough. Our data is too important to risk to just one solution. So I suggest having three different backup solutions: one online solution, one offline solution which you keep somewhere other than where you live (a relative’s house, a safety deposit box, etc.), and one offline solution which you keep where you live or work.

Yes, it can be a hassle to make daily / weekly backups but consider what the alternative is. So take the time and make backing up your files a habit. Like the saying goes- you never know what could happen!