Computer Back-Up
By Dave Ashton
Losing your all your computer files is like losing some small chunks of your life. Those photos of first birthdays or trips to the beach can’t be brought back. I can’t speak from experience, I have been so terrified of my computer crashing from seeing others around me fail, that I have been obsessive about backing-up my computer.
Computer back-up is essential not only because you can lose everything if your computer were to crash, but also it can help free up memory and help your computer feel spry and young like the day you pulled it out of the box.
Here I will outline three simple steps computer back-up:
1. You need to buy an external hard drive or online back-up service. I have never used the online services, but some people that swear by them. With an online service, you pay a monthly or yearly fee and they periodically back-up your important files online on their storage.
I use the external hard drive method. There are a bunch of brands to choose from and wide selection of memory sizes. I would suggest browsing online at Apple.com, NewEgg.com, or Amazon.com and reading the reviews to see what people are saying about the ease of use, quality, and size of the hard drives.
I use the hard drive method instead of an online service because I feel more like I’m in control, but both work well.
2. Back it up. If you use an online service to store your files, most have alerts and calendars set up to take care of the back-up automatically.
For external hard drives you could back up your files by dragging everything individually into the drive, but that would up a good part of the day, A service that I would recommend is Carbon Copy Cloner®, they offer online service that backups your entire hard drive onto your external hard drive, all at once, for free. You could start the Carbon Copy Cloner® before bedtime and wake up with a complete back up of your computer’s hard drive.
3. Be consistent. You never know when your computer’s hard drive, spinning at 75 mph is going to fail, but it will fail.
Set a specific time each week to back up your hard drive. If you have a particularly important project, back it up immediately.
Consistent back-ups will ensure the proper function of your computer.
Using these three steps will ensure that you don’t find yourself heartbroken over lost family photos or the semester-long school project.
Losing your all your computer files is like losing some small chunks of your life. Those photos of first birthdays or trips to the beach can’t be brought back. I can’t speak from experience, I have been so terrified of my computer crashing from seeing others around me fail, that I have been obsessive about backing-up my computer.
Computer back-up is essential not only because you can lose everything if your computer were to crash, but also it can help free up memory and help your computer feel spry and young like the day you pulled it out of the box.
Here I will outline three simple steps computer back-up:
1. You need to buy an external hard drive or online back-up service. I have never used the online services, but some people that swear by them. With an online service, you pay a monthly or yearly fee and they periodically back-up your important files online on their storage.
I use the external hard drive method. There are a bunch of brands to choose from and wide selection of memory sizes. I would suggest browsing online at Apple.com, NewEgg.com, or Amazon.com and reading the reviews to see what people are saying about the ease of use, quality, and size of the hard drives.
I use the hard drive method instead of an online service because I feel more like I’m in control, but both work well.
2. Back it up. If you use an online service to store your files, most have alerts and calendars set up to take care of the back-up automatically.
For external hard drives you could back up your files by dragging everything individually into the drive, but that would up a good part of the day, A service that I would recommend is Carbon Copy Cloner®, they offer online service that backups your entire hard drive onto your external hard drive, all at once, for free. You could start the Carbon Copy Cloner® before bedtime and wake up with a complete back up of your computer’s hard drive.
3. Be consistent. You never know when your computer’s hard drive, spinning at 75 mph is going to fail, but it will fail.
Set a specific time each week to back up your hard drive. If you have a particularly important project, back it up immediately.
Consistent back-ups will ensure the proper function of your computer.
Using these three steps will ensure that you don’t find yourself heartbroken over lost family photos or the semester-long school project.
