Three Best Ways to Back Up Your Computer

Losing all your files and all your software is the worst thing that can happen to your computer. Just imagine that one day your computer crashes and no matter what you do, you can’t get it to boot. That can happen if your hard drive fails or if a nasty virus damages your operating system. When this happens, there is only one thing that you can do – reinstall the operating system. But this means that everything you had on your computer, including all your files, photos, music, software – everything disappears in the blink of an eye. That’s why you should always have a backup of everything you have. Here are three best ways to back up your computer.

1. Use an external hard drive

One of the most affordable ways to back up your files is to use an external USB hard drive. These days USB hard disks are very affordable and you can easily get a 1TB or even a 2TB hard drive. This will be perfect for storing your photos, music, videos and other files. Keep in mind, though, that backing up to an external hard drive has two main disadvantages. For a start, an external hard drive is not very different from a simple hard disk. This means that it can fail. Secondly, it can be hard to keep your backup properly synchronized. On top of that, backing up to a USB disks won’t back up your operating system and installed programs.

2. Create a disk image

Disk imaging is one of the most efficient and safe ways to back up your computer. When you create a disk image, everything gets backed up – even your operating system as it is on the day you create your backup. This means that if you have a disk image, you will be able to restore literally everything – even the programs that you have installed. Windows 7 and some editions of Windows Vista have a built-in disk image creator. To launch it, you need to click on Start – Getting Started – Back up your files. Then click on Create a system image. Follow the instructions and create your backup. As for Windows XP users, they will need to use third-party disk imaging software. Disk imaging is the safest backup method, but you will need to create disk images on a regular basis to make sure your backups are up-to-date.

3. Use an online backup service

Remote backup is the safest and the easiest way to back up your computer. There are many benefits to online backup. For a start, your files are stored off site, which means that even a fire or a flood won’t hurt them. In addition to that, online backups are automatically synchronized and kept up-to-date. Most online backup services ask you to download a client app that keeps track of all changes you make to your files and updates them in real time.

Computer backup is essential if you want to avoid losing all your files. These three methods will help you keep your data safe. Use more than one backup method and your files will always be safe.