Tech

Avoiding data-loss disasters

There are few things more frustrating than completing the last paragraph of a 20-page report only to have your computer seize up and give you the blue or grey screen of death. Although most word-processor programs periodically save, that doesn’t always happen often enough (and it won’t matter if you can’t get your computer to turn back on).

SAVE IT YOURSELF

If you’re writing an important report, a thesis or a love letter, take the extra step of saving the document manually as you go. Though this can save you ninety-nine per cent of the time, it won’t ward off all data disasters. There are many ways you could accidentally lose access to your data: a power outage could burn out your motherboard, or your hard drive could go bad. There is really no excuse not to back things up.

PUT YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUD

To be sure you have your most important files after an emergency, you can back your files up to the cloud, ie, the internet. You can do this by subscribing to an online service that lets you load files to their server. Not only does this keep your data safe, but you can also access it from different devices.

BACK THAT THING UP!

In the old days, backing up data was a tedious process. Now there are external hard drives and software programs that back up everything automatically. Plugging an external hard drive into a computer’s USB port is a quick way to make another copy of your data.