170 Spoons

Backup Your Computer - Keep Your Stuff Safe

WHY? Your photos, documents, and other files are worth keeping.

Redundancy can be a good thing. If you have a computer with important files on it, and you probably do, you want to keep them safe. Some items are sentimental. Some are really important for other reasons. So it makes sense to back that data up!

When I first started thinking about backing up my computer files I just shrugged my shoulders and never did anything about it. I didn’t know what to back up, how to back it up, and how often I should back up my files. Then people I know, friends and co-workers, fell to the infamous hard-drive crash, blue screen of death, or just deleted folders willy-nilly and POOF! Stuff they wanted was gone.

I knew it was time to do something. I didn’t want my legacy to go down as they did. I wanted to do something about it! So here’s some of the tips I’ve learned that has made it a snap to save and backup my important files.

Get Organized
Remember the other day I taught you how to keep My Documents organized? Today that organizational skill you developed is going to pay HUGE dividends. If you haven’t gotten your documents in order, you can still back them up, but you’re liable to miss several or have an incomplete backup.

Copy Files Online
There are websites that will allow you to put a copy of your files online. One of the more popular ones I’ve heard of is xdrive.com. I’ve never used an online backup system so I can’t say I recommend them. Others love them because it makes their documents accessible to them from anywhere they go. If you have a gMail account, you can use it for the onsies-twosies uploads: just email yourself a few files to your gMail account.

Where to Store Files
In my opinion, the best way to back up files is to purchase an external hard drive. Prices have dropped and storage space has skyrocketed. It is well worth the investment and it makes for a much better backup process. I found one that I think may be the best value right now — the Iomega 500 gig External Hard Drive. It’s small in physical size, huge in space for files, and a competitive price. (FULL DISCLOSURE: if you purchase this drive through the provided link, I get a small financial kickback as with any Amazon purchases you make from this website or my recommended store).

Yeah, I’m like you thinking, “But my hard-drive is only 40 gig. Why do I need a 500 gig drive?” I’m with you. However, I say the reason is so that you can not just back up files, but you can archive files that you don’t need to keep on your computer, back up another computer, etc.

How to Backup Files
Now to the meat of it all. To be as simple as possible, just hook up your external hard drive, make a folder on it with the date of the backup, and copy “My Documents” into that folder. Done.

There is a step further you can take that can be worth your while and that is to not just back up your files, but synchronize them. This process checks what files are missing and changed and makes sure everything is in it’s place. To do this, you need some free software! I use SyncBack from Snap Files. This program works like a champ. I run it every few weeks or month (usually). This software just makes it easy to manage the transfer of data back and forth.

Backing up a Mac
If you have the new Mac operating system Leopard, then you have the “latest greatest” backup system around called Time Machine. I’ve never used it so I don’t know how well it works. If you don’t have Time Machine, you could check out this tutorial how to backup a Mac. I’ve never used either system on a Mac, but either way, you’ll still need a good external hard drive.

So what have you found to be the best way to back up your files? You have any horror stories of not having your stuff backed up? Have you tried any Mac backups? Let us know your story!