Backups are the insurance policy for your computer

Backups are the most important maintenance for computers.

The one thing you can’t afford to lose is your data. Yet most people don’t save important files. You overlook this simple step. It takes hours to create a file but mere seconds to back them up.

Everyday you’re playing Russian roulette with your lively hood.

The question is not if you will have a computer crash. The actual question is when will you have a computer crash.

Losing your files until you’ve had to give the bad news.

Here’s what happens.

Computer tech: “Sir, your hard drive has failed. It must be replaced. Do you have a backup?

Customer: “No I don’t have a backup. How will I get my files?”

Computer Tech: “There’s no way for us to get your files. You might be able to have the data recovered by a service. But It’s really expensive.”

Customer: “How much is really expensive?”

Computer Tech: “Between $3000 – $5000 and there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to recover the files.”

Customer: Holding back tears “I can’t lose these files. It will have to close my whole business.”

Backups are insurance

Backups guarantee you won’t be like the man in the story.

Family pictures, tax documents, resumes, necessary business files and home videos are in danger of being lost forever. You’re not preparing for if something happens. You’re preparing for when it will happen.

With the tools available for backing up your files it’s simple to keep extra copies of your files.

3 types of backups to save your files without worry

Cloud drives

Cloud drives are a great place to start.

You download an app. The app creates a folder on your computer. You save your files into this folder, and they upload to the service’s servers. These services are geared more towards documents and few photos.

Cloud drives are the easiest to maintain.

Cloud Drive Examples

OneDrive

One drive is owned by Microsoft. Their service has integrating in Windows and Office. They have apps for MacOS, iOS, and Android.

Google Drive

Created by Google. It’s the same place you save your Google Docs and pictures in Google apps.

DropBox

DropBox was the one who made cloud drives popular. They have started expanding their product line to include other things. But their service is still top notch.

Online backups

Online backups are similar to cloud drives but different.

These services back up your whole computer.

You never have to worry about losing any files because the whole computer is backed up.

Online backup example

Backblaze

Backblaze is an amazing company. They offer unlimited backup space for $7 per month. I don’t have any more examples because I haven’t seen anyone else as reliable or inexpensive.

Their backups store all of your files so the size of saved data is huge. But if a disaster happens, they will send you a hard drive with all your files on it. You just return the drive when you have copied all of your files.

Local backups

A local backup is a backup saved to a hard drive you own.

This hard drive should be external. Meaning it’s not inside the computer. With the price of external hard drives, you have no excuse not to have a local backup of your files.

Some drives come with software to help you do backups.

If not, then you need to save your files twice.

If you’re not backing up your files, you need to start today.

Disasters aren’t if they will happen to you, they’re when it’ll happen to you.