Warning! If You Don’t Take Action You Can Lose All of Your Files

The following applies to PCs and laptops running Windows 10.  I don’t have any experience using Apple Mac systems.

Today I am going to talk about the very high risk that someday you may lose ALL of your files; documents, music and photographs if you don’t take action in advance of such an occurrence.  Also think about any documents or images on your mobile phone or other devices.  If you lose your phone they are not recoverable.

Computer hardware will eventually fail.  If and when it does and you are lucky you may be able to transfer the computer’s hard drive to another PC or copy the contents to a new unit.  However, in some cases the hard drive can fail without warning and files may be irrecoverable.  Your PC could be stolen or your office could suffer a fire.

A failed hard-drive can be recovered but this is not guaranteed and the technicians who carry out this work charge a lot of money for their hard work.

Now, you ask; What can I do to reduce the risk?

1.You can use a cloud system to store copies of all important documents.  This is good up to a point but Online systems can be hacked and i have heard of customers being locked out of their accounts.  I wouldn’t rely on this service as a sole back-up

2. Get an additional external hard drive to save a back-up of your files.  Ideally more than 1 external drive if your files are especially valuable.  Keep your external hard drive away from the Pc when not saving a back-up.  Ideally leave it with a trusted friend or relative. Save your files at least every 7 days.  A high quality 2 T drive is between £60 and £100.

USB3 refers to a higher speed connection, if you have it on your computer, is preferred but all drives also work on USB2.  The USB3 drive is normally coloured blue on laptops.

AVOID Chinese suppliers on this product.

Security

If your files are sensitive for business purposes or otherwise you may want to consider installing password protection on the external drive(s).

While I am on the subject of add-ons,  especially for laptops.  Have you considered adding a full size keyboard or a mouse rather than depending on the built in touch-pad.

I also recommend adding a second screen to your laptop.  This will make copying from one document to another much easier.

I have covered multiple screens for a Windows PC  in another blog here.

I will be writing a blog on adding peripherals to a laptop shortly.  Watch this space.

I use multiple back-up external drives in my work creating digital products.  I would hate to lose several weeks work if my PC failed.  Please click on the banner below for further information or contact me directly if you would like to chat about the John Thornhill system.  It will cost you nothing to watch the training.

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