Backing Up Your Data 101
As bloggers, we’re working with our computers throughout the day. In fact, you probably have most of your digital life saved on that machine sitting in your lap. It’s never been a great idea to only have one place to save your data, but if you’re anything like the majority of us, the chances are that you haven’t backed up your files in quite some time.
But with the price of digital storage falling every year, there’s really no excuse for not backing up your data, and it’s a good idea to back up your data in a few places. With that said, we’ve come up with a few great options for you to choose from.
External Hard Drives
External hard drives have gotten incredibly cheap recently. You can pretty easily find a 1TB portable external hard drive for under $100. For most of us, it would take a long time to fill 1TB — you might never fill it completely.
External hard drives are great because they’re usually smaller than a paperback book, so they can go with us wherever we go. It will add virtually no extra weight to your shoulder bag, and it’ll always be there when you need it. Additionally (and obviously), an external hard drive gives you the added benefit of being able to quickly move large files from one computer to another. They make great in-between devices.
On the downside, however, external hard drives are just as susceptible to crashing as the internal hard drive in your computer, especially if it’s not a solid state drive. Also, every time you use it, you risk it being stolen, and in that moment, it’s not just a hard drive that’s stolen — it’s your personal data, something that is far more valuable than a 1TB external hard drive.
External hard drives are a great solution to the problem of backing up your data, but they should almost always be complemented by one or more other data backup solutions.
The Cloud
There are a number of solutions for backing up your data in the cloud. Apple, Microsoft and Dropbox are some of the major players, but there are some other companies who are making their mark as well.
My Cloud is, obviously, your own personal cloud service. Anywhere you have an internet connection, you have access to whatever you have stored in your cloud. It’s a great solution for people who have a lot of music and videos that they need to access quickly when away from home. Unfortunately, like a traditional external hard drive, My Cloud suffers some of the same risks, with theft being one of the major concerns. If you have your own personal cloud, you’ll probably have everything saved there. I mean everything. If someone stole it, it could be absolutely catastrophic for you. Backing up your data is important, but running your own personal cloud may be a little more work than you’re interested in.
IDrive is another great company who makes backing up your data online really simple. Like Dropbox and OneNote, IDrive acts as a virtual filing cabinet for all your data, but it offers a tremendous amount of storage space at a competitive price. Right now, IDrive is running a special promotion for The Blog Herald readers: for just $14.88 (a 75% discount), you can have 1TB of cloud backup and 1TB of cloud sync space for a year! Get the promotion here, or simply click on the image below.
In addition to giving you a tremendous amount of space, IDrive gives you access to a number of features that the online storage companies do not, including universal backup, Facebook and Instagram backup and incremental backups. It even works with virtual machines.
Whether you choose to back up your data in the cloud or with physical media, be sure that you have an extra copy as well. No matter where we save our data, nothing’s totally fool-proof, so save smart, bloggers!
