Bring on the back-ups
5 ways to keep your digital files from vanishing
By Marc Saltzman
Backing up computer files is a lot like exercising: we know it’s important but some of us rarely do it.
As our personal and professional lives become increasingly digital — photos, camcorder footage, documents and music collections — it’s critical to back up everything in case something happens to the original files.
Just ask Michal Capland, a mother of four, who lost hundreds of photos after a computer virus. “I was devastated,” says the Richmond Hill, Ont.-based teacher. “Despite having Internet security software, we somehow contracted a virus that turned our screen white. All of our photos were gone.”
IN THIS STORY
Why back up?
In the precarious digital world, files could vanish in a number of ways: a nasty computer virus, hardware malfunction, natural disaster (such as fire or flood) or electrical power surge. Or your laptop could be lost or stolen.
In a flash, your entire digital life could be gone forever — unless you proactively back up on a regular basis.
Before you back up, you’ll want to organize what to back up.
- Digital photos and camcorder footage — you can’t replace these memories.
- Contact info for all your friends, family and work associates. Include phone numbers and e-mail addresses (you may already be backed-up if you sync devices such as a cellphone or smartphone with your PC).
- Calendar appointments, e-mails and work files such as Word documents, important financial information and passwords.
- Music collections, audio books, web site bookmarks or anything else that is irreplaceable or inconvenient to retrieve.
Ways to back up
Computer users can back up their important files in a number of ways:
Online: Backing up files to cyberspace — such as a password-protected web site — ensures your data is safe in case of fire or theft of your computer. Windows Live SkyDrive, for example, offers up to 5 GB of free online storage, which can be accessed from virtually anywhere.
USB key: These inexpensive keychain-sized Flash drives are easy to use and don’t require any software. Just plug the USB thumb stick into an available slot on your computer and a new drive letter (such as E: or F:) will pop up on your screen. Now you can manually drag and drop files over to the new drive.
While inexpensive — as low as $7 for 1 GB of memory — they don’t store as many files as an external drive. A 16 GB USB key can be purchased for between $80 and $100 and today’s maximum USB Flash drive size is 64GB for sale at $5,000.
Postage stamp-sized Flash cards, such as those used in digital cameras, have now reached a storage capacity of 32 GB. Some computer users rely on these memory sticks or cards for long-term storage, others simply use them as a convenient way to transport files between computers.
External hard drive: These paperback book-sized drives plug into an available USB port and show up as a new drive letter (such as E: or F:) in a program such as Windows Explorer. With capacities of up to 2TB for about $500, you can store thousands of photos, videos, songs and documents.
Old computer or media player: Why not load your files onto an older PC via recordable disc, memory card/stick or external drive? Even if you only have one monitor you can temporarily connect it to your older PC just to transfer the files. Also, some media players let you use a portion of the drive for data.
Recordable CDs, DVDs : A relatively inexpensive — but limited — option is to “burn” your files to a recordable disc (such as a DVD+R or CD-R). Compared to external drives and USB memory, burning discs takes longer, cannot store as much data and is vulnerable to scratching, moisture and heat, which could make
Automated back-ups
If you’re the forgetful type, automating backup tasks might serve you best.
The good news is a number of products — such as Windows Home Server, Bell Personal Vault and some external hard drives and online services — can be programmed to automatically back-up your files at specific times of the day, such as 3 a.m. (though you’ll have to leave your computer on overnight).
You’ll first be asked what kind of files you’d like backed up, such as those stored in a folder like Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, etc., or you can choose all. Next, choose the time of the day to back up (typically when you’re not using your computer as it can slow down performance) and how often (daily, weekly, monthly).
After losing precious photographic memories, Capland has since learned about the benefits of ‘exercising’ back-up options. “We didn’t have anything backed up,” she concedes. “But we do now.”
