The Intel Magneto Black custom PC. Read more on Intel Unlocked.
Click, click, click…
That was the last sound my hard drive made – the last few clicks telling me it was gone, and a chunk of my personal history was gone with it. Sometimes those clicks happen and you have time to back up your data before it’s all gone, but other times it’s already too late. Losing your data is always awful, and it often happens without warning.
Hard drives and SSDs are like light bulbs – you start them up one day and it’s gone, everything is gone. Backing up your data could prevent this loss, and there are several ways you can protect your data from the dreaded drive crash, accidental deletion, or even getting erased by a virus. World Backup Day is on March 31, and you should celebrate the day by making sure you have all your precious data safe and secure.
It’s not just computers anymore
With so many people now using smartphones, tablets, and other devices, that library of photos might be gone by simply losing your phone, so it’s important to backup files everywhere. Make sure you’re using a cloud backup service for your device, and consider copying files from your device to your computer or an external hard drive.
What should I backup?
It’s always good to look at what you hang on to and decide what’s the most important – for me it’s the videos, photos, and stuff I have created over the years. You can simply copy these to another device and, for added security, store them in a different location so theft or fire won’t erase those memories. A backup hard drive in a fireproof safe can give you peace of mind when the worst happens.
The shockproof and water-resistant Armor A60 portable hard drive from Silicon Power.
The tools you need
Backing up my data has always been something I dreaded. Whether it’s moving images off a camera or just copying data from one drive to another, a good portion of my life has been spent watching that flying file animation. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are plenty of solutions on the market today that can make your data safe and run fast. Here are some popular options:
Software
Backup software can often give you the most seamless experience – backing up automatically to a different location takes away the work and worries.
Multiple drives/External Drives/USB Drives
USB flash drives can make storing data easy and portable, while adding another hard drive gives you speed and the most capacity. When I upgrade my PCs, I usually add another hard drive and keep my original for a backup, or put it into an external enclosure so I can store my files in a different location.
RAID – Redundant Array of Independent Disks
This is often the solution you see in businesses where data is important. Many motherboards support RAID by default now, so it’s easy to take advantage of it just by adding a few extra drives.
Building your own NAS? These WD drives are designed to run in a NAS environment.
NAS – Network-Attached Storage
With this system, you can set up a hard drive to be accessible via multiple computers on your network, or even over the Internet. One of the advantages of a NAS drive is that you get access to your data all the time. Sending files to your NAS will keep them safe and secure, and allow you to access them remotely. NAS units can also take advantage of RAID, giving you redundancy and accessibility.
There is no better day to start backing up your files then on World Backup Day, so join Newegg and commit to backing up your files before they are lost and gone forever. Don’t lose those valuable memories! No matter how you choose to save your data, have a happy World Backup Day.
Visit Newegg’s World Backup Day HQ!
