What Is The Best Way To Backup A Computer?

By Author: Khan Mash
Total Articles: 22
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In this article, I will talk about some of the best ways to do data backup. I will also explain the importance of data backup.

Backing up data is compulsory for all computer users when they have important information. When I say data, it could be anything from notes to a high level corporate records and databases. Every single computer, tablet including iPads, iPhones etc. have different kinds of inputs like pictures, documents, music etc. Data for a writer means, hours of writings, and data for a household is all important photos, pictures and videos. A small business maintains its financial info including customers' database, employees’ records, inventory and any other office documents. Medium and large corporations have huge amount of crucial financial and company information. Whether it's small business, a household or a large company, nobody can afford to lose their important information.

How data is usually kept? There are two traditional ways people keep records. One is a hard copy and the other one is a soft copy. A hard copy can last up to a certain time. A soft copy can stay for a long time depending ...
... on method of storage. In old times soft data or electronic data was kept in the form of punched cards, while the modern methods include data storage on magnetic media using CDs, hard drives or USB media.

CDs storage is not long lasting, usually after 8-10 years, information starts to disappear. Traditional hard drives can keep data for a long time. USB and SSD drives keep data in nand memory chips. Storing data online is not a very attractive way but the attraction is unfortunately not that good. The reason is, it costs money to store documents, pictures and photos using online services. Users have to pay certain amounts every month. This means if a user pays $10 a month for online data storage, it will be $120 a year and if he or she keeps the data for 5 years, its $600. I am not talking about 10 to 15 years which will be $1200 to $1800. Here is a another bad thing about online backup and that is, the user agreement that says it clearly that in case of accident, the storage service will not be responsible for data loss. One more problem is if the Internet is not available, there is no way to access data for emergency purpose. Another important negative aspect is to keep private and confidential data on someone else computer online which is definitely not a smart move. What if a service stops its operation all of a sudden due to any reason? Yes, the user will lose his or her data because there will be no chance of data recovery.

So what is safe and better way to store information? Definitely, the best strategy will be storing data on an external hard drive or USB in addition to one copy on a computer, laptop, iPad or phone. This means every user whether he or she uses a computer (Microsoft windows or Apple), tablet, laptop or any other device, must have an external hard drive. It's cheaper, reliable and more convenient way. How it is cheaper and convenient? Hard drives prices have dropped tremendously over the years. All Apple computers and Microsoft Windows computers have built-in data backup utility. A user can easily run the wizard to setup an external hard drive to backup the computer whether it's a Mac computer or PC laptop. The first time, it takes a few hours to backup the entire data. Next time only updated files are backed up and user cannot even feel it. This way all the documents, photos and music are saved to an external hard disk without user intervention. This is no doubt the best way of computer backup.

In this article, I have explained different ways of backup. I have also discussed the most recommended method to backup a computer.
By Khan Mash
MCSE, A+, Apple Certified and 21 years in IT.
Tech at
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