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.

PDF, short for Portable Document Format, are a commonly used file. If you have a paper copy of a document that you want to turn into a digital PDF file you can use your Android or iPhone to capture the document and convert it to PDF.

How to Create PDFs on Android Using Google Drive

Open the Google Drive app on your phone.

In the bottom right corner tap the camera icon.

Hold your phone over the paper document and if you have “auto capture” turned on the camera will automatically take a picture of the document, you can also choose the manual option to capture the image yourself. Once the image has been captured you can add additional pages by tapping the (+) icon then tap the done button and then the save button.

You can access the files by tapping the files icon at the bottom of the screen.

How to create PDFs on iPhone Using Notes

Open Notes on your iPhone and select a note or create a new one.

Tap the camera button at the bottom of the screen then tap scan documents.

Hold your phone over the paper document, if auto mode is enabled it will scan the document automatically, to manually capture the scan tap the shutter button. If you have several pages to scan hold your camera over each one until all of the images have been captured, then tap the save button.

When viewing the document, you can click the share icon and then choose to share it or save it to a different location.

We want to preserve our phone battery so that it lasts as long as possible.

The life of a lithium-ion battery is generally 500 cycles (about 2 or 3 years) whichever comes first. A charge cycle is the period of use from fully charged to fully discharged and then fully charged again.

Rechargeable lithium-Ion batteries have a limited life and will slowly lose their capacity to hold a charge. This loss of capacity is irreversible, but you can increase the lifespan of your phones battery by using it and charging it correctly.

Partially Charge

When charging your battery do not leave it on the charger until it reaches 100%. The sweet spot to keep your battery charged is between 25-85%. Charging to 100% can stress the battery and shorten its life. So don’t leave your phone on the charger overnight. Android and iPhones both have a setting that allows you to limit the charge, so it never reaches 100%, adjust this setting on your phone to preserve the battery.

Avoid Extreme Temperatures

Extremely high or low temperatures can degrade the battery capacity.

Use Recommended Charging Accessories

Use certified charging accessories supplied by the manufacturer, third party charging accessories can damage the phone and battery.

Conserving The Battery

Adjust the settings on your phone to conserve battery usage. Turn down the screen brightness, uninstall unused apps, put apps to sleep, limit location services, lock your phone after a period of inactivity, turn on battery saver or low power mode, limit push notifications, keep your apps up to date.