How To: Back Up Your Computer
How much is the information on your computer worth to you? What if you lost it all? Unfortunately, there's a good chance that your business would come to a standstill if you lost all your data.
According to a survey conducted by Protect Data, the most common reasons for data loss are:
Human error: 32%
Hardware failure: 44%
Corrupt software: 14%
Deadly virus: 7%
Hackers, thefts and natural disasters: 3%
If you use your PC occasionally, a weekly backup might be sufficient, but if you use your PC on a daily basis or your work is primarily dependent on it, a biweekly back up is a must. Here are some simple tips to back up your personal computer.
offline methods
USB flash drive
As the name suggests, this is a portable storage device that can store up to 2 GB of data, which is about 1,420 times more than what you can store on a floppy disk.
Take a look at some of its benefits:
You can carry it around because it is compact -- they are usually around the size of your thumb.
It does not require a battery or any software to operate.
You simply need to plug it into the USB drive of any computer to access your data.
You can read, write, copy, delete, and move data from your hard drive to your USB flash drive, and vice versa.
You can store MP3 files, applications, videos, digital photos, and more.
Updating your flash drive every second day is a good idea. If you have a PC at home and can transfer data from your work computer onto it, then you should consider updating the flash drive twice a week.
CDs, external hard drives, and some online backup methods…
CD-R/CD-RW
The most common storage size for CDs is 650 MB. To make it simple, a standard CD has the storage capacity of approximately 450 floppy disks.
You can easily copy your files and data onto CDs. If your hard drive is damaged, you can later copy the data from your CDs back onto your computer's hard drive.
As CDs can store fairly large chunks of data, backing up your computer once a week should be enough.
External hard drive
This is a drive that takes up very little room on your desktop yet safely stores large files, music, photos, videos, and more. Many external hard drives can protect your files with a password and because they are powered by your PC, you don't need an extra power supply. Lastly, although most external hard drives have a storage capacity between 80 GB and 160 GB, there are also brands on the market that can store up to 750 GB of data.
Most external hard drives weigh only a few pounds, so you can easily store and transport very large files. Seagate is a leader in external hard drives, so check out their devices.
online methods
Online briefcase
Web companies like Yahoo! provide you with an online briefcase service that is free of cost and on which you can store data up to 25 MB. You can access this data anytime by using your Yahoo! ID.
This offers tremendous mobility since you can access your files from anywhere in the world -- all you need is an internet connection.
E-mail
Another very cost-effective way to store basic files is in your e-mail. This method is ideal for Word documents or Excel files. Just create a separate folder within your e-mail account and put all your important documents in there.
Alternatively, you can create an exclusive e-mail account -- such as yourname.backup@gmail.com -- and copy all your important files to this address. Gmail offers you almost 2.76 GB of free space, which should be more than enough to store all your files. You can also use the search feature to locate an important file.
Back up your life
Creating a backup is the only way to ensure that your data is absolutely safe and always available. So avoid any nasty last-minute surprises by backing up your data regularly.
