When is the last time you backed up your computer? If the answer is not recently or not at all you are at risk. Data loss will happen, it can be due to hardware failure, malware, cybercrime or other looming threats.

You might not realize how critical your data is until it is lost. Here are 4 ways to back up your computer and ensure you have a copy of your data if the original is lost.

External Hard Drives

External hard drives are an excellent choice for backups. They can be small and compact with a lot of storage space, they are easy to connect and disconnect and can be stored in a fireproof home safe or other secure location. When choosing a drive, the most common options are SSD and HDD drives. SSDs use flash memory, while HDDs use magnetic disks. SSD drives have no spinning parts and are faster than traditional HDD drives so if data transfer rates matter to you choose an SSD drive. When choosing a drive select one large enough to hold all your data with room to spare because as time goes by your current backup size will most likely increase so selecting a drive that allows for that growth is wise.

NAS

A Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device acts as a mini-server that allows any device on the same wireless network to access the stored data. These are an excellent choice when you have multiple devices to backup, and they allow you to easily move data from one device to another over the network and share data between devices.

NAS devices connect through hard-wired ethernet cables or Wi-Fi. They connect to a router and can be slower than backing up to an external hard drive because files are being transferred over the network. But the benefit of multi-device access is worth a slower transfer rate.

Cloud Backup

Almost everyone has a cloud account since free storage often comes with email accounts like Gmail and Outlook. When you backup to the cloud your data is stored on a remote server with the company. Security is always a priority when you are trusting someone else with your personal data so be sure to choose a highly reputable company that uses the best security and encryption. Most accounts offer a limited amount of free storage, and you may need to purchase a plan if you have more data than the free storage allows.

Another benefit of cloud storage is that you can access your data from all your devices at home and away and share documents with others. And you can easily restore your information in the event of data loss.

USB Drives

I left USB drives for last as these are not an ideal backup location. They are not the most dependable for long term storage and are best used to move data from one location to another. Generally, the storage size on USB drives is limited and may not be large enough to hold an entire backup. They are also more prone to failure than the other types of backup choices I have mentioned. And they are easily lost or misplaced which can lead to data loss and theft. In a pinch you can use one but for the long term go with something more stable and reliable.

Choose a backup method that works best for you and then use it regularly to ensure your important data is protected. Ideally you should have three copies of all your important data, the original copy and two other copies in separate locations and when using online storage never depend on that as your only backup. You are at the mercy of the company that is hosting that data, and you can never be certain that it is 100% safe.