The problem with computers is that they’re never 100% reliable. Whether through a virus, degradation of your hardware, or an error in your system, there’s always a chance that any data, no matter where on your system it’s stored, might become corrupted, fragmented, or lost. As such, it’s pretty much vital that you keep a backup of any files you can’t afford to lose. I’m talking vital documents, family photos, save games…all the important stuff. Here’s a few general guidelines to ensure that your data’s as safe as can be.
- Figure out how much data you need to protect: Plan your backup strategy accordingly. You can’t back up 1 Terabyte’s worth of files on a 500 Gigabyte external hard drive. If you’re planning on buying a drive for the express purpose of saving your data, make sure you get one that’s large enough to do so.
- Establish what’s vital and what isn’t: The pictures of your family might be essential to back up, but are the 2,000 pictures of cats you found online really that important? If you’re finding yourself strapped for space, take a look at what you’re backing up and ask yourself what files are truly irreplaceable.
- Try using a backup program to ease along the process: Backing everything up manually is a pain and chances are, it’s an arduous process you don’t really want to subject yourself to. Most external hard drives come with file back-up software pre-installed, and if a cloud solution’s what you fancy, there are plenty of excellent applications online, such as Amazon’s Simple Cloud Drive.
- Run a thorough virus scan on all files you’re backing up: If your computer gets borked by a virus, do you really want to inadvertently re-install that virus the moment you retrieve your lost files? Make sure all your files are clean and in one piece before you plop them onto a backup drive.
- Keep your backup safe: If you’re using a physical backup strategy, make sure to keep your storage drive in a location where you can easily find it, in a place it’s not likely to get damaged. HDD external hard drives don’t really respond very well to shock or vibrations. Make sure to take good care of them (take a look at the External Hard Drive Care Guide if you’re not sure how to do that)
- Back up your data regularly: Don’t just do it every few months. At most, do it every night or every week at minimum. Every time you make changes to any of your files that you can’t afford to lose, back them up. If you’d prefer, you can set up scheduled backup times. For example, at 3 AM every day when you’re in bed and you don’t need the memory of your computer for anything else.
- Keep your backups organized: I don’t think I really need to explain this one. If you’re backing up your files, you need to be able to find everything. Make sure to keep things organized.
- (OPTIONAL) Keep multiple backups: Just in case one of your backup drives decides to bork itself (it’s happened to me in the past) or you should lose access to one of your virtual backups, it’s good to have something to fall back on.
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It’s also worth considering whether to keep a backup away from home, in case of theft, fire, etc. Personally, I’ve been researching an ioSafe drive, which claims to withstand some fire and water. It could be well worth the investment.