Why You Should Back-Up Your Work
Why do you need to back everything up?
Do you really want to see everything you worked so hard on, get lost in cyberspace? Not to mention, all of your contacts, possibly your billing information and, who knows, what else? Being a survivor of a crashed computer, I am here to say, it's not pretty! I have compiled some information in hopes that this won't happen to you.
"People protect what they love."~Jacques Yves Cousteau.
When we talk about protection, we are often speaking about our family and our possessions. Don't forget that the things we write, draw and create deserve our protection, too.
There are several Different Ways to Back up your Work
You may choose one or all of these methods. After losing my work twice (yes, I know!), I have opted to use two of these methods. I back everything up to a Cloud service, Dropbox. I use this service for my personal things and I use a Dropbox for Wordpress plug-in for my website. My website gets backed up on both of them. I also make hard copies of my posts, poems, stories and anything I don't want to risk losing.
Ernest Hemingway Should have had a Back up
Way back before he became the notorious writer that he was, Ernest Hemingway's wife Hadley, accidentally, lost a valise filled with all of his manuscripts. The devastation was immense. Years later, he did state that it was the best thing that could have happened to him, as he went on to write even greater novels!
We may not all feel as lucky at having to start over!
A Chart of the Different Types of Back-up.
Hard Copy
| External Drive
| Software
| The Cloud
|
|---|---|---|---|
You can make a physical copy of all your work.
| Purchase an external hard drive.
| You can download free or purchased software to back up your work to a separate file.
| Choose an online company that you feel comfortable with.
|
You can keep a notebook with all your contacts.
| Use the one or more hard drives to organize your files.
| Decide which programs you want backed up.
| Set a schedule for automatic saving.
|
Make an itemized list of what is in your computer, shoud you need to duplicate it.
| Remember to set a schedule for downloading to your drive.
| Determine how often you want your things backed up.
| Add things that you don't want to risk waiting until the scheduled time.
|
Many people choose more than one Method to Back up their computer files.
Just how backed up are you?
Do you have a back up?
Popular Downloadable Storage Programs.
- SkyDrive
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Box
- ICloud
- Amazon Cloud drive
Most of these programs are free up to a certain amount of storage. You can compare costs by determining the amount of storage you will need.
How to Choose the best External Hard drive for your needs.
If you choose to use an external hard drive, there are several varieties you can choose from. The first decision to make is what its main function will be for you. Will you be using it simply to store data? Woud you also like to share with other computers. The size and speed of your unit will help determine the price. If you are looking for simple, back-up storage, there are plenty of portable hard drives on the market. They sell for less than $100 and fit just about in the palm of your hand. If you are looking to transfer data from one computer to another, regurlarly, you will require a hard drive with a sharing function. They are usually costlier and take up more space. Whichever way you choose, this is a viable option for backing up your work.
An External Hard drive
A Portable Hard Drive.
A Flashdrive as Storage
For something small or important enough that you would like to keep seperately, you can save it on a smaller flashdrive. These are relatively inexpensive and you can use them to organize certain items for you. I have one that is just resumes and another that has all the information about my car. Some people like to keep different bodies of their work on them and I know some people who use them to itemize and take pictures of the things in their house for insurance purposes. They are handy, inexpensive, quick to use amd take up a minimum of space.
Let me know what you think.
Different Back up Programs Fit Different Needs.
Everyone has their own lifestyle and, with that, different needs. In this article, I have talked about several methods, as well as included the programs I am personally using. I would love to hear from you both in the ratings to the side and down below in the comment section. What types of programs are you using? Are you happy with what you have? Can you reccommend it? Please let us know below!
