Computer Backup
Why Do You Backup?
Backing up is one the most important thing you should ever do if you have a computer. You never know when your hard drive is going to fail on you. If you never backup, and your hard drive dies on you, all of your precious files will disappear. Your memorable photos, important documents, movies of your favorite vacation, childhood memories, etc. will just disappear and will never come back. No one wants that to happen. Losing your files is just like losing a friend or family member. Just think about that.
The Time When My Hard Drive Died.
When my hard drive failed, I was working on a Keynote project for Spanish. It was backed up on my flash drive. All of a sudden, I got this: 
. This is what you get when you and application doesn’t respond. In my case, the whole computer didn’t respond. I also heard clicking noises where my hard drive was. That’s when I knew that it was hard drive failure. It’s a good thing I backed up several weeks ago and had my project on my flash drive. A few days later we took it back to the Apple store. It took them several days to replace the hard drive. For my project, I used my cousin’s laptop. It took me a while trying to get back to normal from starting over.
What Can I Do To Backup?
Backing up can be done many ways. You can backup with an external storage device, optical discs, and online. It really depends on how much data you have on your computer.
There are two kinds of external storage devices. There are flash drives and there are external hard drives. You should use a flash drive if you have hardly any files on your computer. This is for people who rarely use a computer. The cost of flash drives varies. They can range from $5 to $100 or more. The storage can range from 64 megabytes to 8 gigabytes or more.
External Hard Drive Storage:
External hard drives are the most popular way to backup data. It’s much faster than optical discs. This is for people who have a whole lot of data on their computers. Hard drives come with any of these ports: USB which is the most popular. It can transfer speeds at 480 Mb/s (Megabits per second) or 60 MB/s (Megabytes per second). Also there’s FireWire 400 and 800, which is more popular with Macs. If you have a network, you can use a network hard drive. There are certain routers that allow you to plug the USB into the Router. Finally, there’s the rare eSATA, which transfer data at a much higher rate. The cost of hard drives can range from $50 to thousands of dollars. The storage space can go up to a terabyte or more. If you look below this page, you will find sites where you can shop for hard drives and different backup software.
Optical Storage:
Lastly, there are optical discs: CDs and DVDs. If you are backing up I would suggest using DVDs. They hold 4.7 GB. CDs only hold 700 MB. This is good if you can’t afford an external hard drive. This is the slowest way to backup. The more stuff you put on a disc, the longer it will take to burn. Before you back up to a DVD, I suggest making a checklist of what you should backup, just in case you forget to backup something.
Online Storage:
When you backup online, it would be suggested that you have broadband Internet. The faster the Internet connection, the faster your file will upload. *Always remember: upload speeds are slower than download speeds. Another advantage to online storage is when you have school. For example, you have a project saved to an external storage device or a computer. All of a sudden, your computer or external device dies. If you saved your work to an online site, you can always download it from online and save yourself from getting an “F”. Another advantage to online backup is that you can share what you have uploaded to people you know. Many sites, such as Flickr, allow you to share your photos online so that everyone can see them. Many online backup sites can let you share your documents, etc. One disadvantage to online backup is that it can take a really long time to upload files. Try to avoid uploading big files, especially if you have a slower Internet connection. I mostly upload small documents, because they upload faster. If you look at the bottom of this page, you will see several online storage sites.
Hard Drives & Hard Drive Sites:
Backup Software:
- Time Machine (Mac Only)-Comes with every Mac with Leopard.
- SilverKeeper (Mac Only)
- iBackup (Mac Only)
- NTI Backup Now (Windows Only)
- SuperDuper (Mac Only)
- NovaStor (Windows Only)
- Handy Backup (Windows Only)
- Windows also have their own backup program which comes with the computer.
Online Storage Sites:
