While storing all your data on a computer provides you a lot of convenience, it may also turn out to be a little dangerous as well. When you keep all of your data in a single place, it becomes vulnerable to different kinds of security threats. Accidental deletion, natural disasters, theft, physical loss and cyber attacks are some of the most common reasons that might serve as causes behind loss of important data. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of all your important data, it is highly important to backup your computer. That way, you would be able to get access to your data even if it somehow gets compromised from the primary sources. There are numerous ways to backup important data on your computer.
Part 1: What is a Computer Backup
A computer backup may be referred to as an exact copy of the data present on your computer. All your important data is kept in its original form on another device where it stays in case you ever need it for some purpose. If your primary source of data somehow gets compromised due to any cyber attack, accidental deletion, physical loss or any other possible reason, all you need to do is to access the other source of data where you stored the backup and you are good to go. A few of the most common means of how to backup your computer are discussed in the section below.
Part 2: 3 Ways to Backup your Computer
1. A Bootable Backup (or “Clone”)
A bootable backup may be referred to as a detailed copy of your entire hard drive along with every byte of data present on its surface. In case any of your data gets lost due to any possible reason, you may be able to get access to it easily by booting into the backup copy of your hard drive. This backup is also commonly known as a clone and may be referred to as the spare tyre you keep in your car. When you get a flat, all you need to do is to install the spare tyre and you can be on your way. Similarly, whenever your data gets compromised, you can boot your data clone and get access to it without having to go through any trouble. If you are planning on using this method for taking a backup of your computer, it is highly recommended to keep on updating it on a frequent basis. Otherwise, an old, outdated clone is not going to do you any good.
2. Cloud Backup
Taking a backup of your computer’s important data on some physical device and keeping it nearby your computer is a good call but your data is still at risk. There might be a theft of physical media, some natural disaster, a fire or some other unwanted incident. In order to cater this issue, you might consider taking a backup of important data and keeping it in your office or at a friend’s place but think about how you are going to constantly keep it updated for every data update? When you are not going to keep it constantly updated, what good is it for you in case something happens to your original data? Therefore, the best way to backup your data and keep it constantly updated is by uploading it on a data cloud.
Cloud backups may be thought of as the safest, most convenient and easiest means of taking a backup of your important data. In order to get started with such a backup, all you need to do is to look for a good cloud services provider, create an account, get their software application and start uploading your data. Some of the applications even provide you with the facility of updating your data automatically on a consistent basis. When you run the software, you can check out all the offered services and options and select the right preferences as per your own requirements.
3. External Backup Drive
An external backup drive may also be used for the purpose of taking backup of your important data. It might appear to be just like a data clone but as a matter of fact, it is very different from a clone. It is not a bootable backup and may be thought of as a snapshot of a hard drive with incremental backups. This kind of backups keeps all your important data updated all the time. So any time you need to recover your backup, all your data would be there in its updated form. Therefore, making use of an external backup drive might also be a great choice when it comes to backing up your computer.
In the light of the arguments discussed in the paragraphs above, it may be concluded that taking a backup of all your important data might come in very handy in a number of different scenarios. Therefore, it is highly recommended to keep a backup at your disposal to serve as a contingency plan. A few tips in this regard are listed below.
- Making a clone backup is the smartest choice;
- It never hurts to take more than one backups;
- If you are taking backup on an external hard drive, always prefer buying the best quality drive to avoid physical damages.
