How many times have I asked someone that question—right after their hard drive failed? Know the answer I usually get? A blank stare, an awkward pause, and then, “Does that mean all my files are gone?”
Yup.
Don’t let that happen to you. Nobody wants to lose photos of their grand-kids or re-enter all their Quicken data again.
When hard drives fail, they most often do so within the first six months of being new—or else wait until they’re several years old. That means even your new computer needs a method of backing up your important data.
So why do so many people not back up their computers? Because it’s usually a pain. Ever had one of those external hard drives that supposedly has back-up software built into them? Has anyone—anyone?—ever had that stuff actually work as promised? I haven’t. But I do have a simple solution that anyone can use—it just takes a little initial set-up (which I can help with, if needed).
It’s called SyncBack, and they offer a free version for personal use. I use the pro version for business, and that version has a few more options (such as backing files up to a server).
Beyond that, you need another drive that’s large enough to store your data files. This could be another internal hard drive, a large-capacity thumb drive, or an external drive.
Then, in Windows, we assign a fixed drive letter to your back-up drive, something like X or Y or Z. (This keeps SyncBack from getting confused about which drive you’re using after you’ve set it up—more on that later.)
In SyncBack, we set up profiles for the various areas you want to back up—things like My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, your desktop, your Quicken/Quickbooks data, etc. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up each of these, and after that, all you have to do is select the profile you want to run, select Run, and then select Continue Run, if the confirmation window pops up. Repeat for any of your other profiles you’d like to back up.
That’s it!
You can even schedule the back-up to run in the middle of night with the scheduling feature, so you never forget, and the back-up never runs while you’re trying to do something else.
Also, the reason you want to assign a drive letter to your back-up drive is because anytime you plug in another drive, Windows will automatically assign it a drive letter (such as D or E). In SyncBack, your profiles back up to a specific drive letter every time. What if you have a thumb drive and an SD card from your camera plugged into your computer? Is it D? Is it E? Eliminate the potential confusion and make your back-up drive X, Y, or Z (or whatever will never be automatically assigned by Windows).
If you run into difficulty or would just like someone available to help and make sure nothing gets messed up, please contact me.
We also have a free workshop scheduled at West Custer County Library on Friday, February 10, 1:00 PM. Contact Cathy McCarthy for more details, or keep an eye on the paper for upcoming press releases.