Be Prepared for Digital Disaster: Top Tips for Backing Up your Data

World Backup Day

World Backup Day, an initiative to raise awareness about data preservation, is today, March 31. It’s a perfect time to start thinking about how to protect all your data. With so many people owning smart phones, we are creating more content than ever before – just think of all the photos and videos you have stored on your phone. It’s estimated that consumers have taken 1.1 trillion photos worldwide in 2016, and this number will grow to 1.2 trillion photos in 2017!

Consumers have taken 1.1 trillion photos in 2016Additionally, according to the organizers of World Backup Day, almost 30 percent of us have never backed up our data. So to get you prepared, we’ve created a list of top tips to ensure your data is protected in all the right ways. If you’ve ever lost your phone, laptop or tablet (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t?), you already know that one simple accident could destroy your most important files. And because we take our devices with us almost everywhere, the chances of something tragic happening are even higher.

 

Here’s how to back up your data properly in an increasingly unpredictable world:

Tip 1: Be Prepared

You spill, you drop, you forget. Phones break and devices are stolen. Though you may not always think about it, it’s important in your digital life as much as in your physical life to keep an eye out for potential vulnerabilities. That’s why you should create a plan to regularly back up not only data stored on your computer and phone, but also from your social media networks.

Tip 2: Be Organized

World Backup Day is a great time to do some digital spring cleaning and get rid of any content that you no longer need. While you’re at it, make sure to organize your remaining files into folders with names and categories you can easily search for and remember. Once you’ve done that, get a head start on maintaining your cleaned up and well organized content by scheduling recurring backups, keeping your data secure all year round.

Tip 3: Be Entertained

Are you a movie fanatic or music lover that wants to enjoy your content wherever you are? Or maybe you’re planning a fun trip this summer? Try storing your on-the-go entertainment on a portable drive so they go where you go.

 

Now that you’ve got a great backup plan, it’s time to choose the right drive. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Tip 1: Think Capacity

Take stock of your data. Do you have mostly text files and a handful of photos or do you have thousands of photos and dozens of videos, too? Knowing if you have a lot or a little data to backup will help you choose the right drive for the job. Think big if you have tons of multimedia content. For example, a drive like the Seagate Backup Plus Hub with up to 8TB of capacity could be a good fit for a home movie fan. If you’ve got a smaller amount to store, a mobile drive with 1-2TB of storage would likely be sufficient.

Tip 2: Pair Fashion and Function

Are you colorful, trendy, minimalist or techy? If you’re prone to losing things, go for a colorful drive like Backup Plus Slim or Backup Plus Portable, which comes in bright and easy-to-find colors like blue or red and can pack up to 5TB of data. If you’re a minimalist, evade excess by going sleek with the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim – Seagate’s thinnest portable drive. There are options out there for everyone, so be strategic about what you think will work best for you and your storage needs.

Tip 3: Ensure Easy Access

Our lives grow busier by the day. Whether you’re a student shuffling from class to class, a 9-5 professional or simply always on-the-go, make sure you have a mobile device you can take with you no matter where you are. And think about what kind of access is right for you – for instance, you can keep your homework accessible on a Seagate portable drive, but store your old photos on the cloud or another backup drive to make room for the stuff you really need every day.

But most of all, don’t be caught off guard if and when digital disaster strikes. With World Backup Day next week, now is the perfect time to ensure you have your backup plan in place and never live in fear of losing your personal, precious data.

Have more backup questions? Check out this slew of additional tips — Seagate partnered with Lifehacker for a live Q&A session on March 27 at 12pm PT. Read up there on all the backup-related questions folks asked, so much more to learn you didn’t even know you didn’t know!

And if you’re feeling lucky, be sure to enter our sweepstakes to win the world’s thinnest 2TB external drive, it ends at 5pm Pacific time today.

Backing up my files — what does that mean?

2019-07-25T17:51:54+00:00

About the Author:

John Paulsen
John Paulsen is a "Data for Good" advocate, with more than 20 years in the data storage industry. He's helped launch many industry-firsts including HAMR technology, 10K-rpm and 15K-rpm hard drives, drives designed specifically for video and for gaming, Serial ATA drives, fluid dynamic HDD motors, 60TB SSDs, and MACH.2 multi-actuator technology.