OK OK, I know it has been a few days since I last posted, I'm sorry, been busy working and looking at possible homes to buy. As a computer tech I get asked all the time how can someone keep from losing their favorite photos, important files, from being lost to the digital hell that is known as BSOD, or God forbid the hard-drive physically crashes!!
Well, what I usually tell them is BACK IT UP!!!!!!! There are several ways you can save your photos, music, videos, & files from being destroyed by an accident. Let me first say this...I am guilty myself of not backing my stuff up like I tell people they should. I'm human, and so I make mistakes. With that said, let's get back to business. Several types of "media" are used for backing up. They are discs (DVD & CD), jump or flash drives, portable/external hard-drives, and on-line backup web sites.
First a little history. Back when hard drives were small and before flash drives became popular, the norm for backing up or saving files was the "floppy" disk. This was a small 3.5 inch square disc that only held 1.44 MB of data. Yea, you read right, 1.44MB. That is about a third of the normal size of a MP3!! Thank goodness for advancements in technology!
So back to the media.....
Discs (DVD & CD) are cheap to buy and unless you spring for the re-writeables (which I do not recommend) you can only use them once. If you mess it up, then the only thing they are good for are coasters for your drinking glass. So you need to use your judgment if you go this route. They are good to use and they will last for a long time, if properly taken care of. Basically if you have ever made a music cd for your car then you just backed up some music. See it is not that hard to do.
The next option is the flash or jump drive. This a highly portable storage device, that uses solid state technology (no moving parts) to save the data on. The smallest I've seen on the market recently, is 2GB. To put it into perspective, that is roughly 1800 floppy disks. Personally, I own a 16GB flash drive, but that is because, 1. it was on sale and 2. because I was using 2-3 smaller ones all the time. The one major drawback to a flash drive is that it is not a viable device for permanent storage. Now if you have a large file you need to transport from one pc to another without using the internet then this is your baby.
Okay, next up is the external/portable hard drives. These are just like the hard drive in your computer. Only difference is, is that these are not inside you computer. Other than that they are no different. Probably the smallest one is 80GB and the largest available lately is around 1 TB. TB you ask? No not tuberculosis, TB as in Tera-Byte, or 1000 GB. 1TB is equal to about 1 million floppy disks. Try putting those in your briefcase....HA HA good luck! External hard drives have one flaw that I have noticed. They have moving parts that are susceptible to magnetic waves, just like in your computers hard drive. Other than that I see nothing wrong with them. Most of them are powered through the USB connection, while some are designed to be more of a permanent drive attached to your computer.
Now for the last option. Online backing up is a viable option in that you can access the information from any computer attached to the internet. Personally I do not like them, for the one reason of security. If I can not set the security level myself to level I want, with the password I prefer, then forget it. Some people I know swear by them, but I do not like them. Just a personal opinion only.
Well until next time... peace, love, and God bless!!!!!
Greg
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