Top Four Computer Backup Solutions

Pledging to back up all your computer files is like a New Year’s Eve resolution. You mean it when you say it, but for most people, the promise is forgotten pretty quickly. One of the most common customer requests for our computer repair service in Los Angeles is data recovery after a hard drive failure. That’s why it pays to put computer backups higher up on your list of things to do. It’s more likely to come in handy than learning French or losing those ten extra pounds.

Effective computer backups can be challenging for a novice. The technical jargon used in the industry can be confusing. We’ve compiled a short list of the most common and effective ways to back up your computer files, explained in plain English.

External Hard Drive Computer Backup

It’s important to understand that it’s not a matter of if your hard drive will fail, but when. Eventually all hard drives break down or lose the ability to effectively read and write data. The only sure way to always have access to your data is to make a copy of it. One straightforward method is to simply copy your files to an external hard drive. The cost of external hard drives has plummeted. It’s easy and cheap to back up all your pictures, documents, movies, and other important data to a second disk.

There’s one big problem with backing everything up on an external hard drive, however. It’s located very close to your primary drive. You’re likely to lose both hard drives at the same time if you suffer a disaster like a house fire or a robbery.

Cloud Computer Backup

Online data storage solutions are a great way to keep your important data backed up and remote from your primary hard drive. Cloud storage is a service that allows you to keep data on a portion of their servers via the Internet. If your computer hard drive is damaged or stolen, you’ll be able to instantly retrieve a duplicate if you’ve got a copy on a cloud server.

Many cloud services like Dropbox allow you to put copies of important files on their servers for free. The amount of storage is limited. If you’re serious about backing up a lot of data, especially big files like photos and video, you’ll need a subscription for extra storage. Cloud services are inexpensive for what you get, but you can never stop paying for them or you’ll lose your stored data.

Flash Drive Computer Backup

Flash drives have been a convenient way to share files between computers for a while. As their price dropped and their storage size increased, more people started using them instead of external hard drives. Flash drives are great for backup storage. You can remove them from the USB port and store them in a secure location away from the primary hard drive. USB thumb drives give you more peace of mind than desktop external hard drives. If you only want to back up important documents like tax returns and other sensitive financial information, flash drives are economical and easy to use.

CD Computer Backup

It wasn’t too long ago that compact discs could hold more data than a typical hard drive. They made excellent backup media. They were especially good for things like family photographs and other files that didn’t require a lot of reading and writing to disk. Hard drives have become much larger. For computer backups, CDs have mostly become the computer equivalent of microfilm records in an old library. If you have data that you need to archive and save, but rarely need to look at, CDs and DVDs make good backups. They can be stored in remote locations like safety deposit boxes.

Get Help From Our Computer Repair Service in Los Angeles

A few people back up their data conscientiously. For most computer users, automating the procedure is the only sure way to be prepared for a primary hard drive problem. If you find the idea of setting up an automated computer backup system too difficult, don’t worry. It’s inexpensive to hire a computer repair service in Los Angeles to do it up for you. It’s certainly a lot cheaper than building a time machine to go back and retake all those photographs you lost after a hard drive failure.