Backing up and Archiving
Over the years, it’s become evident that many students aren’t storing their files very well, forcing them to have to rebuild some that they can’t locate all files or links for. Here’s the low down on backing-up and archiving:
I back up remotely using an online service called Backblaze. There are tons of other services. I’ve heard many people like Carbonite, Mozy. These are great because they back up automatically for you either at a set time or constantly (when your laptop is open).
Dropbox (which offers the first 2GB free!) can be used for back up, though that’s not it’s main purpose—it’s much better for file sharing. With DropBox, you’d have to remember to put your files in your box manually on a very regular basis. It makes room for human error.
But what about archiving? What’s the difference? Your back-up is used to make sure you have the most recent work saved on a separate drive should your computer’s hard drive fail. But for long term storage, I used to like to burn on to DVDs. These days I have too much data for that to be efficient. That said, I think as students, it’s the best way to go—reliable and affordable.
I print a list of the folders for easy searching down the line and include it with the disk. Trust me, you’re going to want to go back to old files and this saves time and heartache. I usually burn 2 discs as they tend to fail in the ripping process pretty often. If you want to go even one step further—burn a copy to take off site—in other words store it somewhere else in case of fire/theft etc. That’s going the extra mile for sure, but not all that crazy when you think about it.
If any of this doesn’t make sense, let me know!
