External Hard Drives are a good place to start. Many external drives come with software that make backing up your data easy and can effectively copy your files at the push of a button. Many of them offer automatic backup options as well that can be scheduled for times you are away from your computer. All external hard drives support manual addition and removal of files. Flash Drives are virtually smaller versions of external hard drives. Some flash drives can hold great amounts of data and with a USB interface, are handy if you are on the go. Flash drives typically cater more towards manually managing what goes on and off the drive but some offer automatic and ‘one touch’ backup options as well. CD’s and DVD’s are yet another way to backup data. This is probably the most time consuming and least user friendly method. Often times multiple discs will be required and in specific formats that may not play well with other computers. Occasionally, special software is also necessary to accomplish simple tasks. On line Storage is a relatively newer and increasingly popular way to store your personal data. The cost is almost always directly related to the amount of data stored. Your data will be stored on a remote server, which offers the convenience of accessing it from any location as well as the reassurance that if your computer should crash your data will remain intact on the remote server and can be retrieved once your computer troubles are solved. If you are interested in online storage, give us a call and we can help you get setup with a safe and secure backup!

As often as you can. As technicians we know that data backup is not always at the forefront of many users minds when checking email and doing day to day computer activities. We recommend backing up at least once a week to be on the safe side since hard drives can spontaneously stop working.