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How do you "back up files"?
highland paddy
Posts: 672 Forum Member
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Almost embarrassingly simple question I suppose, especially on this forum, but I don't know how to and need to learn in case my laptop goes on the blink and I lose my photos and whatever else.
I don't have the usb stick or whatever. When I get one is it pretty straightforward? What do you save apart from photos and music files? Should you save on more than one stick?
Would appreciate a novice level rundown, thanks.
I don't have the usb stick or whatever. When I get one is it pretty straightforward? What do you save apart from photos and music files? Should you save on more than one stick?
Would appreciate a novice level rundown, thanks.
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Read through this - http://uk.pcmag.com/backup-products-1/8647/guide/the-beginners-guide-to-pc-backup
That will give you a basic understanding so that anything you are advised on here, will at least, make some sense. You don't have to do everything that's mentioned in the article, a basic file backup will keep your photo's etc. safe.
Once you've read it come back with any questions.
Does not matter what you use, but you have to do it. If you don't it is very easy just to lose the one copy if a HDD fails and it will, that you can be 100% sure of.
It is your choice whether to use a number of storage devices.
In your scenario you would plug in the USB keydrive, select the Folder with the File Explorer > Right Click Folder > Send To > USB drive(X:)
You could also Select Folder Drag and Drop to (X:) whatever way suits you. It's Windows, so several ways of doing the same thing.
The "simplest" backup is to use a cloud storage service (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox etc), and just move your documents and pictures folders to the folder corresponding to the local copy of your stuff.
You add stuff to the folder, and it gets backed up, without a single click or even a thought.
A lot of them give you 5GB or 15GB for free.
I subscribe to Office 365 - so have 1TB of free OneDrive space.
I'll stick with simple thinking.
HI.
Are you using windows, if so what version, Xp vista, win7 etc?
Do you know roughly how much/many things you want backing up?
How often do you add extra music/photos onto your laptop?
Using the usb stick, copy/paste will work easily.
General advice is you should really have at least two backups.
re
'What do you save apart from photos and music files'
in the ideal world a complete backup of the operating system is advised, but thats a bit more involved than copy/paste.
Well that is opinion. It is simple enough but hardly simpler than just copying files to a flash drive or external usb.
The more important the file is the more copies there should be of it and also they should be at multiple physical locations so that if something causes your house to be turned into dust you know you can just wander to your parents house and pick up something and the data is safe.
For most people i'd recommend an internet based backup for the more smaller files but do not just use one as like any business it could fold at any time and you will have lost your precious data, do check your internet plan and your ISP's upload rates as even with 1tb of data storage it might take a week or so to sync all those videos of the kids etc.
The best way to think is that you get the call that the house has burned down to the ground and the machine is a puddle of metal and someone hands you a fresh lappy can you get everything back you want? if not then sort it out and do test it now and again...rename a file and then try and restore it from a backup and if you can't then fix it before the mrs comes to chop off your bits with a rusty knife since you lost the last 10 years of photos/vids etc.
Irrespective of simplest why not use both external and cloud backup? Then if your house burns down or is burgled you're not totally lost.
Some are nervous about cloud but can encrypt sensitive files before backing up if required. That's what I do but I only started doing it this year and wrote a script to automate it as a weekly schedule, while my local backup is daily.
You would need an external hard drive, £50 or less for a 1TB.
I think of backing up as just copying all the files that you don't want to lose onto either a flash drive or burning (writing) them to a CD. In the case of a flash drive, once it's in a USB socket, just drag everything you want safe over to it in the window.
Same here. I've never had a computer automatically back anything up.
It is simpler, since you don't actually have to do anything. And any option that save you without user input, is the best option.
The chances are that you won't back up quite often enough. Even if you remember to manually back up once a month, you're still a month out of date if you have a problem. It also doesn't protect you if there's a fire/flood/burglary since there's a high chance your backup drive is buggered too.
I would put all important user files into cloud storage and forget about it. Yes, it'll take a while first time (leave it uploading overnight). Then do a manual backup of the whole system once a month or so if you really must.
Not if you carry it with you at all times and keep it on top of a cabinet next to your bed. What if your backup in the cloud gets hacked into and your stuff gets deleted? There's a small chance of that happening, I know. It could happen though.
The back up has to be backed up.
Agreed - aways good to have a plan B (and C etc if really paranoid or very valuable data).
?? RTFM ;-)