From work or administrative documents to family photos, vacation videos and emails, all kinds of digital documents should be carefully backed up so they are retrievable in the event of theft, deletion, or an accident involving your computer or smartphone.
In conjunction with World Backup Day last Thursday, here are some tips on how you can make a copy of all your content. It is advisable to do two types of backup: one to a hard disk, and the other to the cloud.
Backup to a hard disk
It is essential to regularly back up all the data on your computer. Although it is possible for you to copy just your documents, it would be much better to back up your entire drive, in case you have to reinstall everything on a new device.
This also gives you the advantage of restarting from the backup disk in the event of technical problems. However, be careful not to store this backup disk alongside your computer, as this could be detrimental in cases of theft or damage.
While there’s a multitude of software that allows you to make a perfect copy of your computer’s hard disk, Windows includes a very simple tool. To use it, go to the Control Panel, then System and Security.
Here, you should find a backup option to copy your files to another drive – such as a USB flash drive or external hard drive – connected to your PC. You will then be able to restore all or part of this data at a later date if necessary.
If you have a Mac, the easiest way to make a copy of your data is to connect an external drive and use Time Machine, a tool directly integrated into macOS. The program is easily launched and managed from the menu bar of Apple’s operating system.
Online backup
Because no one is immune to theft or accident, it is also advisable to keep a copy of your data online. To do so, you should choose a cloud storage service, log in, and then backup. Some options include Google One, Dropbox, and iCloud.
This kind of solution is pretty much essential for backing up a smartphone. Your multimedia data can then easily be stored in the same way online, via the relevant services from Apple (iCloud) or Google (One).
On an iPhone, go to Settings, Apple ID then iCloud. There, you can select the list of data you want to synchronise. On an Android smartphone, you have to go to Settings, Google, then Backup.
These services are free up to 5GB and 15GB of data, respectively. Beyond that, you will have to pay to subscribe monthly or yearly.