In all likelihood, there considerable amount data on your computer that is important to you at this very moment. Consider everything you have saved on it including the irreplaceable photos of your college experience, your music collection, and the sole copy of your thesis. All of it is on your computer and all of it could be lost in instant for a variety of reasons including:
- hard drive failure
- loss or theft
- file corruption
- accidental deletion
- harm caused by virus or other malicious program
In the event of any of the above occurring, having a good and current backup can save you the expense, trouble, and heartache of losing your data.
The frequency to backup your data is entirely up to you. However, the more frequently and consistently you backup your data, the better off you will be in the event of data loss. There are many backup solutions available including external hard drives, cloud storage, USB flash drives, and writable CDs and DVDs. To ensure you don’t forget to backup your data, the process can be automated through features built-in to operating systems such as OS X’s Time Machine and Windows’ Backup and Restore. There are other applications available on the market and many external hard drives come bundled with backup software.
If you need assistance setting up a backup solution or have other questions, please contact the Tech Center. Don’t wait until you’ve lost your data to take the steps to protect it.