I Back Up & So Can You: The Importance of Backing Up Your Stuff and How to Make it Happen

Christopher S.

Pennsylvania State University

Communications

Photography. Netflix. Spending time with family.

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You've done it. Your Pomodoro timer has been worked almost as hard as your psyche. You know your school's library databases like the back of your hand from the countless hours of sifting through scholarly articles. Your references are world-class, your thesis demonstrates your chutzpah to the nth degree, and after countless hours of work that massive paper you've been sweating over is complete. You go to bed feeling like the champion you are.

However, when you awake the next morning, your laptop will not power. You hear a clicking sound and, fearing the worst, you run your baby - strike that - your laptop to your local computer experts. With the face of a doctor with bad news, your repair technician explains that your hard drive has failed. Without a backup, you find yourself at he mercy of date recovery companies and their extortive fees.

This sort of dilemma is cringe-worthy to think about, but can be prevented easily and inexpensively. Of course, sometimes important documents can be lost even if diligence is done, but knowing how to backup and staying on top of it can save you a world of hurt. The best part is, it's usually pretty painless to set up.

If You're Using A Mac

Apple spends a lot of time thinking of ways to make using their products incredibly easy, and backing up your Mac is no exception. There are a few ways to accomplish this.

Built into every modern Mac computer is a piece of software known as Time Machine which makes backing up your Mac positively effortless. For Time Machine to work you'll need either an external hard drive or a Time Capsule, the latter I'll get to in a moment. External hard drives are the best balance between practicality and price. As much as you may tell yourself you'll have no trouble remembering to back up that term paper to a thumb drive there's no better way on a Mac than to spend a little more for an external hard drive. Even a 1000 gigabyte hard drive at Best Buy will only set you back $70. For most that cost is well worth ensuring nothing bad will happen to your work.

The other way to automatically back up your Mac is by using a product Apple sells called a Time Capsule. A Time Capsule is essentially a router, similar to the one that beams your Wifi in your home, but a much better version of it. Inside this handy device is a 2 terabyte or 3 terabyte hard drive, $299 and $399 respectively. This option has its pros and cons. For college students, unless you're living in housing off-campus you may have trouble being able to set it up. Time Capsule requires being plugged into a good old fashioned wired connection so if all you've got is WiFi, you may be out of luck. However, Time Capsule is particularly great if you have a portable Mac because it'll automatically back up your computer without you having to worry about being plugging your hard drive into it.

Setting up Time Machine, whether you're using a hard drive or a Time Capsule, is extremely simple. If you're using a hard drive, plug it in and your Mac should automatically ask you if you'd like to back up to that hard drive. Same goes for the Time Capsule once you have your Mac connected to its WiFi. If this doesn't happen automatically go to System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Select Disk and choose your hard drive from the list. That's it! Time Machine will automatically create backups of your Mac as often as hourly. If you're using a Time Capsule, this will happen whenever you're on its WiFi. If you're using an external hard drive, backups will happen automatically whenever you plug it in.

If you're using a Mac, you have every reason to take advantage of its backup features. While Macs are known for being reliable, hard drives still have a nasty habit of failing. In my line of work we say there are two types of hard drives; failed hard drives and ones that haven't failed yet. An ounce of prevention goes a long way.

If You're Using A Windows Computer

This section will be much more brief because there is a lot of overlap between Mac and PC backup. Wireless hard drives similar to Time Capsule on the Mac are available for PCs as well. Regular external hard drives are also similarly inexpensive to purchase for your PC. Either of these options or using an online backup service such as Carbonite are more than adequate for keeping the files on your PC safe.

Setting up automatic backups on your Windows machine is nearly as simple as on a Mac. While you probably won't get promoted to back up to your hard drive automatically when you plug it in, you can be up and running in a few easy steps. First, open Control Panel from the Start menu and click System and Maintenence. Then click on Backup and Restore. From there choose Create New, Full Backup. Your PC will take care of the rest and will make sure your information is safely tucked away.

The Real Cost of Not Backing Up

I would argue that most people don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what would happen if all of the information on their computer were to suddenly vanish. We expect our devices to perform well and to not fail us when we need to rely on them the most. The reality is, whether you're using a Mac, PC, iOS, or Andriod device bad things can happen. Beyond failures having to do with the hardware, our devices are very much prone to being stolen or destroyed. A hard drive or an iPhone can be replaced, but those precious photos of your late relative or that master's thesis you poured your soul into transcend any price tag. Backup is easier and more affordable than ever, so there's no reason not to make sure those portions of your digital life you value most are kept well out of harm's way.

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