How to Make and Keep Software Back Ups on Your Laptop or PC

Your laptop or computer data is probably very important, however, you might not realise this until it is lost owing to a virus or faulty hard disk drive etc. Programs can normally be replaced but data cannot unless a back up is available!

If a computer is networked to another computer or laptop then it is quick and easy to save data between each. Care needs to be taken not to have one machine accidentally overwrite the other's data. If your computer is stolen or gets a virus then the data will be lost, so this method of back up will not be suitable for all users.

The quickest way to back up data is to save it to an USB RAM drive. This is quick and simple but has many reliability disadvantages. If you are using an USB RAM disk to back up your important data there's a high possibility that it will at some point be lost. USB RAM drives are easily broken by careless handling or they just fail from electronic component failure. So just use an USB RAM disk to relocate data between computers and not as a reliable data store.

Many computer users use an external USB hard disk to act as a back up for his or her data. They normally leave the drive permanently connected to the laptop or desktop pc; backing up the important data infrequently. Again this is not a very reliable or safe store for your important data. An external hard disk drive is very easily damaged if knocked or bumped when operating; so the data may not be recoverable whenever a restore is required.

Most home computer users will find that DVDs and CDs offer the best all round method to back up their data, whether its pictures, music or word processing data. Back up takes slightly longer than by using an USB RAM drive or external hard drive but it is much harder to break or damage optical media such as a DVD or CD disk.

Consideration should be given to the regularity of data back up based on how much the computer is used. Select which files you are going to back up and when you will be backing them up. The simple rule is; imagine that your data had been lost, would you be happy spending that amount of time again repeating the data previously created and lost. Ensure you date, time and record the contents to each DVD or CD and store them away from the computer.

Whatever method of back up you adopt you are likely to only know if it has worked correctly once you attempt to restore your data back to the PC or laptop. It is worth spending some time trying to recover your saved data to a different PC or laptop making sure that your pictures, music, letters, emails etc are being saved correctly, if not you can go back and alter your back up methods ready for the time that the data is lost for real.