It is wise to have a backup copy of your files to protect against loss from accidental deletion, viruses and theft but also to protect against loss from power surges (lightning), flood, fire or loss from hardware or software failure. Our helpful hints and tips will help ensure your files remain accessible. Identify what you wish to back up. This would typically be content that would be impossible to recreate ,or which are too precious. This could be photographs, emails and other correspondence, documents relating to your professional work, videos or audio files you have created. Determine what medium you wish to use for backing up. There are many options, both physical and virtual: Portable external hard drive: You can purchase portable external hard disc drives or HDD, which connect to your laptop or desktop computer via a USB connection. Documents can simply be copied to this device via your file manager (consult the instructions for your device/operating system). External HDDs have different capacities so be sure to purchase one of appropriate capacity. If you produce a lot of images or video files you would be best to purchase one with a large amount of memory (minimum 1TB). Cloud: There are options to copy your files into virtual storage. These are typically off site servers located on the premises of the company providing the service. Apple’s iCloud or Dropbox are examples of this type of service. If considering using the cloud be sure to read the terms and conditions of service as this will outline your rights, costs involved, storage limits, how to get your data back if the provider ceases to offer the service you’re using, the level of security offered and what support is available to you. Physical media: CD-R, DVD-R, flash drives and other types of physical storage media can degrade over time and are susceptible to damage if not properly cared for. They can also easily be lost (if particularly small). For those reasons it’s not recommended that you rely on these types of media to back your files up for long term storage, however they may be suitable as a method of short term storage or a method of transfer to more permanent storage. Process and schedule Once you have decided on a method appropriate to your means and content be sure to set up a regular schedule for backing up your files. There may be, in some cases, a method of automating this process removing the need for you to remember. This is determined by the method chosen for backing up. This article was published on 2024-08-21
