By Paul Salmon (Contributed)
Backing up data is becoming more important as more users store much more data on their computers that ever before. Just think about how many different data files exist on your computer that you can’t replace. You may have thousands of digital photos, or personal videos that you can’t retake. If you are in school, what would happen if your lost the essay you had been working on? These are just some of the reasons that making a copy of your data is important.
The good news is that there are many options available to you to help keep a copy of your data safe.
Let’s look at a few of these options:
- External hard drives. Buying an external hard drive is probably the most convenient solution, and also the most popular. The price per gigabyte of storage space is extremely low compared to other solutions, such as USB flash drives. Using an external hard drive is also easy, simply connect the power, and plug in the USB cable into your computer. Your computer should automatically discover the hard drive and assign a drive letter to it. You can then simply backup your files to this hard drive.
- CD’s or DVD’s. This is still a popular option for many. While CD’s are a little dated, and don’t hold enough storage space, DVD’s can still backup quite a bit of your data. If you don’t have a lot of files to backup, then use a DVD for storage is a good solution. Once the files are on the disc, you can then store the DVD at another offsite location, providing even more protection for your data. There is some talk about the longevity of CD/DVD’s, so it is important to buy high-quality discs, and make multiple copies of your data.
- USB Flash Drive. Flash drives are small devices that can hold gigabytes of data. Many of the new drives can handle 16GB or more of data, which can make it a great backup device. Their compact size means you can take them anywhere and they won’t take up much room when you need to store them.
- Online Backup. This is a newer method of protecting your data. There are many online storage providers that you can sign up with to backup your data. Some offer limited storage for free, while others may offer unlimited for a small amount each month. The best part about using an online provider is that you can set up their application to automatically backup your data in the background when your files are changed.
These are just some of the options available to your for protecting your data from a serious event. Remember, many objects in your home can be repurchased, but some of your data could be lost forever. It is important to copy and protect your data on a regular basis.
Paul Salmon currently maintains Technically Easy, as well as knowledge regarding offsite data backup storage solutions.
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James is the owner of WindowsTalk.org and has been a Microsoft Windows Consumer MVP since 2003.
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