How to Back Up Your Hard Drive

Whether you're a home user or the network manager for a large company, data security is important. The information stored on your computer is not something you want to lose. Yet hard drives are fragile pieces of hardware with high failure rates over the years. 

The solution is to back up your data. To do so, you have several options.

On-Drive Backups

The easiest form of data backup is the partition backup. Your hard drive needs to be divided into separate partitions. The backup partition must also be large enough to hold the data on your primary partition. Thankfully, this is all you need for this backup option. If you have a second internal hard drive of the same or larger size as your primary drive, you can designate it as a backup drive and use it instead of a partition.

In order to perform an on-drive backup, you need to use the built-in utility for your operating system. Both Windows and Mac operating systems have backup managers. For Windows, the program is simply called Back Up. For Mac machines, it is called Time Machine. Simply run the relevant utility and follow the on-screen prompts to set up a backup profile, back up your data and set up a backup schedule.

The benefit of this method is that you do not need anything that didn't come with your computer. You do not need to purchase external software or hardware, nor do you need to fiddle with opening up your computer to install a new drive.

The down side is that this form of backup is still susceptible to damage. If a bad sector corrupts part of your primary drive, your secondary partition will be fine. If, however, the drive itself is physically damaged, both the primary and backup partitions will be inaccessible. Using a second physical drive inside the computer can help with this, but it means installing that second drive. This works for a desktop or server, but not for a laptop or notebook.

External Drive Backups

Using an external hard drive is a better option than using a partition or an internal drive. The process is the same; run the backup utility and designate the external hard drive as the backup drive. You have a few more options with an external drive, however.

Firstly, many external hard drives are sold specifically as backup drives. This means they have built-in software that allows you to set up a one-touch backup. You essentially press a single button and wait, while your computer performs all backup operations. These hard drives are often built into durable cases to help prevent data damage.

External hard drives have the added benefit of being portable. You can use them with multiple computers, or carry them with you on trips if necessary. Unfortunately, an external hard drive is not the ideal device for backing up a server or computer with exceptionally large amounts of data. This is because external drives tend to be more expensive for the same amount of storage space as an internal drive.

Cloud Backups

The newest data backup option is to use a cloud server for data backup. With this option, you do not need any hardware yourself. All of the hardware is in a remote data center somewhere on the Internet. This is an ideal option recommended by, for example, a laptop repair service; you do not need you carry hardware yourself, or use precious hard drive space for a backup.

Any damage to a cloud backup server is handled by that company and its own server repair service. These companies also have multiple redundant backups of their own data, so that any data you back up on the cloud is guaranteed to be backed up.

To use a cloud backup service, you will need to locate and contact such a service. There are a large number of such services available, each of varied quality. Before you choose which service to use, you will need to do some research. For a professional opinion, you can ask a laptop repair service what cloud backup service they recommend.

Using the cloud as a backup solution has the primary benefit of not needing to purchase any hardware or software of your own. The process is also very easy; generally no different than using the built-in Windows or Mac backup options. On the other hand, you will need to pay a monthly fee to access your backup. When you stop paying, you lose access to your data until you begin paying again.

There are also some concerns about the security of your data on a cloud service. You are, after all, storing your data remotely. Most cloud providers will make guarantees as to the security of your data, but there is still a remote possibility that your data might be leaked. No solution on the Internet is completely secure.

In the end, choosing a data backup solution is essential if you want your data to exist beyond the failure of a hard drive. Any server repair service will advise that you set up a regular data backup. It's up to you whether you choose to go with an internal hard drive, external drive or a cloud-based solution for your data backup needs.

Dominick Rivoli is the owner of A1 Rivoli, top office equipment and computer service and repair specialists for the Long Island, NY Nassau, and Western Suffolk areas. Visit the website at www.a1rivoli.com.