Backing up your work could save your business
Have you backed up your work lately? We've used our share of different software, apps and storage devices for backing up data. Over the years, I can count on one hand the number of times I've lost data but each time stung.
There is a lot of talk these days about the importance of backing up your work. But what does that mean, and why is it so important? Today we share a quick and easy way to back up your work automatically - and why you should do it. It’s always a good idea to back up your work, especially if you’re working on something important. But sometimes it can be hard to remember to do that, or even to know where to start if you’ve never backed up anything on your computer before. That’s why we put together this guide – to help you back up your work in a way that is both easy and effective.
1. What is a backup and why do you need one?
A backup is a copy of data or files that can be used to restore the original if it is lost or corrupted.
Backups are essential for businesses and individuals alike, as they provide a safety net in the event of data loss. There are many different types of backups, from simple file backups to complete system images. The most important thing is to have a backup plan in place so that you can quickly and easily restore your data if something goes wrong.
There are many reasons why you might need to restore from a backup. A user might accidentally delete a file, or a virus might corrupt critical data. In either case, being able to fall back on a backup can save hours or even days of work. That's why it's so important to have a good backup strategy in place before disaster strikes.
2. How frequently should you create a backup
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how often you should back up your files. The frequency with which you need to create backups will depend on several factors, including how often you use your computer, what type of files you are storing, and whether you have multiple copies of important files. If you use your computer frequently and regularly save or update important files, then you should back up your data more often.
On the other hand, if you only use your computer for light tasks and don't keep sensitive information on your hard drive, then you can get by with backing up less frequently. Ultimately, the best way to determine how often to back up your computer is to assess your own needs and decide what makes sense for you. At Gem Media, we'd recommend that you should back up your data at least once a week, and more often if you make changes to your files frequently.
2. How to create a backup
There are several different ways to create a backup of your computer, and the approach that you take will depend on your specific needs.
If you only have a few files that you need to protect, you can simply copy them to an external hard drive or a cloud-based storage service. For external drives, our favourite brands are Western Digital (WD) and Lacie.
However, if you have a large amount of data, you may want to invest in a dedicated backup drive or an automated syncing online drive. The important thing is that you have at least two copies of your data in case something goes wrong and one of the copies is deleted or gets corrupted.
3. What to do if your computer crashes or is stolen
It could be from physical damage from dropping the device or leaving it on the roof of your car and driving away. So it's always better to be safe than sorry.
With external drives, if the drive is stolen too - the data is gone. This is the reason why having 2 copies of your data in different places is a valuable method to use. For cloud drives, simply download your files directly off the cloud and onto your chosen device to be able to continue working.
If you are working from Google Drive and using the Google tools, you can skip the above step and work straight inside your files, all Google files are auto-synced to the cloud for easy reference and findability on the drive.
5. Tips for keeping your data safe
Set up an automated backup on an online storage drive. A few popular options are Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox. These options create a drive ‘folder’ on your computer that allows you to simply click and drag files directly into it to be backed up. This sends a message to the software that there are items that are not synced to the cloud and the software will make a copy of those items and store them in your account storage cloud when you are connected to the internet. If any changes or edits are made to the file in that folder, then the online drive software will update the copy of the file in
There are plenty of online storage drives out there, like Google Drive, Onedrive and Dropbox. All of them offer some kind of automatic backup feature. So all you need to do is set it up and forget about it.
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