Scientific American presents "Tech Talker" by Quick and Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick and Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies.

I’ve worked in technology for years, and I’ve seen a lot of people experience heartbreak when their computer crashes and they lose their most treasured photos, or that thesis they’ve been working on for the past 6 months. That’s why today’s tip is an important one—and one that you’ll thank me for later. I’m here to tell you the number one way to protect yourself from computer failure: back up your hard drive, which basically means keeping a copy of all of your important stuff in two different places.

Why You Need to Back Up Your Data
My uncle’s computer had just celebrated its 10th birthday. I warned him he needed to start backing up his stuff and so he promptly went to the store and purchased a brand new hard drive. There his purchase sat, collecting dust for months and months. Then one day I received a frantic call from him saying “my computer won’t start!” After a quick inspection, I concluded that his hard drive had finally crashed. Of course, because he had not backed up his computer, he lost hours of family videos, hundreds of financial spreadsheets, and tons of irreplaceable family photos.

Unfortunately, there are many people out there just like my uncle, and the goal of this podcast is to make sure that you aren’t one of them!
 

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3 Comments

1. 1. ElCabong 01:57 PM 7/18/12

   One other reason to back up is because you can inadvertently delete the wrong file or corrupt it somehow.
   
   I back up my to an external usb drive. Just get in the habit of doing once a week. Start it up and go to bed or go grocery shopping or watch TV. It's painless and can save you a lot of grief.
   
   Nowadays you can get a 1T usb drive that is powered by the usb connection very cheap.

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2. 2. singing flea 02:32 PM 7/18/12

   Once you have a second copy you should make a third copy on another removable drive and store it in a different location. Hard drives tend to fail more often during full backups and I have seen more then one drive at a time get corrupted during power surges, fires, floods and backup sessions. Sh*t happens as the saying goes.
   
   As for online or cloud backup, no problem if you don't mind sharing your data with any hacker that can dig in. Antone who trusts the corporate world to safeguard their property is a fool. In the long run it will cost you a lot more then a USB hard drive.
   
   The biggest problem is self discipline. We all tend to procrastinate when it comes to backing up our computers.

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3. 3. jh443 04:01 PM 7/18/12

   I just bought a 2TB external USB 3.0 drive because it was cheaper than the equivalent storage capacity of blank DVD's (the method I had been using). I'll continue to do that again and again as the need arises.
   
   It's so fast and relatively inexpensive, there's no excuse not to.
   

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