When was the last time you performed a back up of the files on your computer?
Imagine if your system or hard drive crash tomorrow and you lost all your files. What would you do? Perhaps you don’t have to imagine because it has happened previously.
Data Backup is Important
The good news is there are a number of ways to back up your files before disaster strikes. Firstly, if you don’t already own one, buy yourself an external hard drive with at least 1 TB data storage. If you’re an employer or employee in a business, you may want discuss the possibility of using a network drive with your IT support team.
How to back up a Windows 10 PC
Use File History to back up to an external drive or network location.
Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Backup > Add a drive, and then choose an external drive or network location for your backups.
It’s that simple! Additionally, there is also the option to back up files to OneDrive, a cloud storage platform. OneDrive initially provides free access to only 5GB of storage, however, 1 TB of storage is included with a Microsoft 365 subscription to Office apps.
Back up your files to OneDrive
Return to Settings > Update & Security > Backup.
Under the “Back up files to OneDrive” section, select the Sign in to OneDrive or Back up files option. Follow the prompts and start the backup.
How to back up a Mac
What about a Mac? Well, there’s a Time Machine for that.
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. While you can use a normal External HDD, we recommend to use a network dive (NAS) for this purpose
- Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu
in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine. - Click Select Backup Disk.
- Select your backup disk from the list of available disks. To make your backup only accessible to users who have the backup password, you can select Encrypt backups.
- Click Use Disk.
After you’ve selected a backup disk, Time Machine will immediately start making periodic backups automatically, without any further action. Easy! There is also a cloud storage option available for Mac (for PC too), iCloud Drive.
Set up iCloud Drive on your Mac
- Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Apple ID. If you’re using macOS Mojave or earlier, you don’t need to click Apple ID.
- Select iCloud.
- Sign in with your Apple ID if you need to.
- Select iCloud Drive.
To add the files from your Mac Desktop and your Documents folder to iCloud Drive, turn on Desktop and Documents.
- You can then find your Desktop and Documents folder in the iCloud section of the Finder sidebar.
- If you add a second Mac Desktop, you’ll be able to find the files in your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive, in a folder with the same name as your second Mac. The files from your second Mac won’t merge with the files on your first Mac automatically.
After you’ve set up iCloud Drive, any documents that are already being stored in iCloud will be moved to iCloud Drive automatically.
Voila! Taking a few minutes to set up a back up plan will save yourself a lot of heartache and pain if disaster strikes.
To learn more about our data security, backup, and recovery services, call or write to us.
You may also come and visit our head office (by appointment) to discuss your technical support requirement in detail.
