September 1, 2022

PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU!

As someone who has been in IT and Education for 20 years, I've seen quite a few changes in those areas. Those changes can make our lives easier or more complicated depending on how you look at your situations. In my job, I deal with the young and the old. The young are eager and curious while the older, let's say "more experienced" as a friendlier term for us, get a bit more apprehensive and cautious when dealing with new technologies. However, whether you are younger or older while reading this, one thing that has not changed is people's understanding of the importance of backing up their data. Years of documents, applications, and notes, not to mention those memorable family photos and videos, can be lost in the blink of an eye or flip of a switch. 


Backing up one's data was cumbersome, although companies have made the experience relatively painless and efficient. Although the process is more straightforward now, it is not without some small costs. With computers now coming with larger hard drives, users seem to keep everything. While documents take up relatively very little space, photos and videos are ultimately what put us over the limit. I say us because I'm right there with you. With all the good intentions flowing through my hand to my computer, there is simply no way on this planet I will be going through 50,000+ photos and videos to "clean up" my computer. External storage is cheaper than buying a tank of gas today, so do we have any excuses? I would say no. 


So let’s begin. You’ll first need an external drive with enough space to backup your whole computer. I would recommend purchasing an external device that is two to three times the size of your computer’s HD. You’ll need to check the HD size of your computer.  


Windows Users: Press the Windows key, type System Information, and press enter.

In the window and the left window pane, you’ll click Components > Storage > Disks … and you’ll see the size of the disk. 

Mac Users: Click Apple > About this Mac > Storage … on the left, you will see your computer's storage.


Once you’ve secured an external device, follow the instructions below depending on what type of computer you have.


Windows 10 users:

Not going to reinvent the wheel.  Watch this Youtube video from Jonathan Edwards.


Window 11 Users:

Jonathan Edwards creates another super simple video for backing up Windows 11.  Here it is.


Mac Users: 

Mac users have it reasonably easy that the Mac OS includes Time Machine.  Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of your Mac to automatically back up your data, including apps, music, photos, email, and documents. A backup allows you to recover files that you later delete or can't access.  Here is how it works.