Someone people move all their photos from their computer onto an external drive and think they have a backup. They don’t.
Backup is essentially TWO copies of your files. In fact, it’s at LEAST two copies.
To help you understand I’ll give you some background info. Your computer (whether it’s a traditional desktop, a laptop, or even a tablet or phone) has a part that stores your data. In a desktop pc it’s usually a 3.5 inch hard drive, a laptop will have a 2.5 inch drive. Sometimes these may even have a Solid State Drive. Phones and tablets are smaller so need a different type of drive. Normally phones and tablets (including iPads) use a type of memory that is soldered directly onto the main circuit board – called a motherboard or logic board.
Whatever type of storage your computer uses, it needs to copied or duplicated. In that way if something goes wrong with the computer you can copy the files from the backup drive back onto your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.
But there’s a catch. If you MOVE everything from your computer to the backup drive and it’s now no longer on your computer – you do not have a backup. All you have is a single copy of your data in one location. Therefore your photos etc are invulnerable. The reason? The backup drive isn’t magic. It isn’t full proof. In fact it’s just as likely to fail as the drive in your computer.
The idea of a backup is that if either your computer fails, or even the backup, you can copy from one to the other. That way you always have at least TWO copies of your photos, documents, emails or any other data at the same time.
It’s a good idea to take that drive offsite, that is, to another location. Even in your garage if it’s separate to the house or business. That way if the house burns down you have your backup.
Another idea is to have two backup hard drives to be extra sure – just in case both the computer and the backup fail at the same time.
Got backup? Is it setup properly? If not, give us a call.