Tech Savvy Tip: Backing Up Your Computer Files

Craig Wilson
Backupology
Published in
2 min readFeb 25, 2022

As we evolve to be more and more dependent on technology to help with our day-to-day tasks, we tend to forget how easily information stored on our computers can be lost.

Picture what would happen if your computer was misplaced, damaged, or stolen. Would you lose any critical music, documents, photos, or other files?

While correcting or restoring your computer may be possible, the files may be lost forever. You can guard your files against accidental loss by backing up to an external hard drive or online backup service.

If something happens to your computer, you can rest assured that your files are safe and secure.

External hard drives

Practically, one of the quickest ways to back up your files is to copy them to an external hard drive. For example, Lenovo makes some of the most popular external hard drives. You will need to purchase an external drive to get started.

Manually back up files

If there is a need to back up specific files, you can copy them directly to an external hard drive. It is easy to protect your most important files and folders, such as certain documents or an important project.

Automatic backup of files

Although it is easy to copy files and folders to an external hard drive, it is easy to forget. Thus, you never know when you might have to access your files, so you’ll want to back up regularly to ensure you consistently have a copy of the latest version.

Most computers can automatically back up specific files or even the entire hard drive to simplify the process.

Back up your files online

The fact is that if you back up your files regularly to an external hard drive, you may still lose your data. Also, you can back up your files to the cloud for added security.

When you keep something in the cloud, it is stored online on servers instead of your hard drive. The key benefit of cloud-based storage is that your files are much less vulnerable to risks such as theft or accidental damage.

If you want to back up several files or folders online, you need to sign up for an account, including a cloud-based storage service. Many service providers will give you a small amount of free space, which should be enough to store your most important files.

Also, you are able to purchase additional space for a monthly subscription. While simple cloud-based services are adequate for backing up your most important files, you can easily forget about backing up your files regularly.

Conclusion

If you want to automatically back up any file or even your entire computer, you will need to purchase a backup from an online backup service. The amount of storage these services provide varies, and you will have to pay a monthly or annual fee for the appropriate space.

While these options may seem costly, they often cost the exact as an external hard drive while offering additional security for storing your files in the cloud.

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Craig Wilson
Backupology

I am a tech journalist, and I enjoy meeting new people and finding ways to help them have an uplifting experience.