How to Backup Personal Files and Data
Boy Scouts Motto: Be Prepared.
Backing up data is not only useful for protecting yourself from a hard drive crash, but is also helpful for moving to a new computer, sharing files between multiple computers, accessing older drafts of documents, and of course, performing a clean install.
Backing up all of your Personal Files, Settings, and Data is a good idea that is frequently thought of too late. In today’s age, memories are stored on your computer in the form or digital photographs and videos, rather than photo albums and video cassettes. Contacts are stored on your computer or phone’s address book rather than written down. Since all of this data can be destroyed just as easily (or easier) than it is created, it is important to have multiple copies just in case something happens to one copy, you don’t all of a sudden lose everything.
Methods for Backing Up Data:
- Backup Partition on Internal Hard Drive
- External Hard Drive
- Flash Drives
- CD’s / DVD’s
- Online Storage
1) Backing Up Data on an Internal Hard Drive:
To backup your data on an internal hard drive, you must already have a partition made from the installation of your Operating System. If you have another hard drive installed, you can format *(see below) the hard drive to be used as a back up space for your computer files. In Windows, My Computer will show the separate hard drive which can be used to drag and drop files onto from your normal C:/ drive. An Apple computer will have the icon located on the desktop that will allow the same drag and drop feature. There are options to mirror the hard drive using RAID 1, which will copy your exact hard drive setup from the first hard drive onto the second. Internal hard drives offer the quickest transfer speeds of any back up method.
*If you do need to format an additional hard drive in Windows, I suggest the NTFS format as it supports larger file transfer and is much more reliable than FAT32.
2) Backing Up Data on an External Hard Drive
The most common backing up of data by most users is done on an external hard drive. In order to back up your data onto an external device, you will need to purchase or have an external hard drive; the most trusted names are usually Western Digital or Seagate.
Plug in your external device via USB or Firewire and let it appear in your My Computer screen (Windows) or on the desktop (Mac). You can use this as if it were an internal device after with the drag and drop feature onto the icon or opening the icon to set up different folders. Some external devices come with software to automatically update the files and folders you select to be the most current on the external from your internal hard drive.
Be sure after you are done copying over the files that you properly disconnect the device. Properly eject the disk by the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in your task bar system tray (Windows) or dragging the icon from the desktop to the trash (Mac).. The beauty of an external device is the portability of your entire library of files without the limitation of space!
3) Backing Up Data on a Flash/Thumb/USB Drive:
We all call them different things: flash drives, thumb drives or USB sticks, but flash memory has become the latest advancement in the world of portable data. Flash drives operate similar to an external hard drive, except they are usually faster to connect to a computer (in terms of showing up on the desktop or in My Computer) and are smaller in physical size and storage size.
You can use a flash drive the same way you use an external hard drive. Plug it into your computer and wait till it shows up in My Computer or on your desktop and double click it to open up the file system. Drag and drop files onto the drive and then properly eject the disk by the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in your task bar system tray (Windows) or dragging the icon from the desktop to the trash (Mac).
These small drives can be used from computer to computer and some even allow you to plug them into printers to print pictures or files directly from the drive!
4) Backing Up Data onto a CD or DVD:
Backing up data onto a CD or a DVD has become an outdated method ever since the use of secondary internal hard drives or external devices, but it is still common for some with smaller files or files they wish to be portable on disk.
To put files onto memory media such as a CD or DVD you need to make sure the media is blank. Most disks can only be written onto once unless they are designated with the “RW” format but music and movies will only be burnt on once and cannot be wiped from the disk after.
To put files onto a disk, download any disk burning program like Nero or Roxio and select the type of disk (media or data) you would like to create and drag and drop files into the window. Select the burn tool and wait for it to complete.
In most operating systems, you can also drag the files directly to the blank disk in the My Computer window and let the files copy over. It usually contains a quick burn link on the side once you are ready to burn your files to a disk. Eject the disk when you are done and insert into a protective case to prevent scratching when not in use.
5) Backing up Data to Online Storage:
Online storage is a relatively new concept as it allows users to back up data to an online server that can be accessed from any computer. Most companies take the liberty to back up your back up so you can be certain you have a copy located securely somewhere.
The only problem with online storage is the price you have to pay for massive amounts of space online and the download/upload speed can be limited by your internet connection. I recommend this for only small files that are constantly used on multiple machines and ONLY secondary to a USB flash drive.
Try a Google search for Online Data Storage and try a couple services out to see if it may be something for you!