External Hard Drive Backup Options

Now that you've learned some reasons why to back up your
data, let's explore the places you can send your data in
order to retrieve it safely should you encounter some sort of
computer meltdown.

One option is to export your data to an external hard drive.
These devices are readily available at your local retail
store and can be found at various Web sites online. Most of
these drives connect to your desktop or laptop computer
through the universal serial bus (USB) port on your machine.
Installation is usually a matter of plugging them in and
letting your operating system discover them. Many of them
come with third-party software to help you back them up. One
installed, you can access your external hard drive much the
same way you would access your internal drive or another
device connected to the computer. Backing up your data is as
simple as clicking and dragging those files you wish to back
up into the external drive. This is perhaps the best solution
for backing up your hard drive. Your data is safe on the
external hard drive should your computer crash.

A second option, one which is gathering more popularity, is
cloud storage, backing data up online to a virtual location.
There are lots of cloud storage sites on the Web; many offer
a few gigabytes of storage for free but require you to pay
for more space. Many of these sites boast security measures
aimed to protect your vital information such as Social
Security, bank and credit account numbers. Still, anytime you
put information on the Web, you should do so with caution.
Information on the Web, no matter how secure, is susceptible
to hackers and security breaches.

If you want, you can back up your hard drive on CDs, DVDs or
on a flash drive. CDs have a relatively small amount of
storage space and are better for smaller data backups. DVDs
can handle about seven times more information than CDs. Most
CDs and DVDs are designed to be used once and can't be
rewritten, though you can buy discs that can be erased and
reburned when you back up your computer again. Flash drives,
in comparison, can handle a few gigabytes of information and
can be rewritten the same way you would with a regular hard
drive. The downside is that larger flash drives can be
costly, which makes backing up an entire hard drive
an expensive proposition. If you use removable media, you can
lock your backups in a fire safe or safety deposit box --
which you can't do with cloud storage and you may be less
likely to do with an external hard drive.