More often than I like to admit I hear from a client who tells me their computer has crashed. My first question is always the same; “Do you have a backup?” Many times the answer is ‘Yes’, but too often the answer is ‘No.’
If the answer is ‘Yes,’ here is what you can expect: Replace the computer, and use the backup to transfer your data. You’ll pick up right where you left off… easy as pie.
If the answer is ‘No,’ here is what you’re up against: You’ve lost your data. You’ll first need to replace your computer,. Then you’ll need to choose if you want to pursue recovering data from the crashed computer, or, forego this process and take the loss.
It might be good to know that many times, data is recoverable from the hard drive. When a computer crashes, the problem may or may not be connected to the internal hard drive. If the problem is not the hard drive, the drive can be extracted and put it in a casing. Your old internal drive is now an external drive, and you can just plug it into another computer and retrieve the data. This process takes a few hours and might cost you a couple hundred dollars. If the problem that made your computer crash was the hard drive, you may still be able to retrieve the data. There are companies that will extract the drive and use other tools to recover the data from a failed drive. This process can be expensive, sometimes over a $1000, so you’ll need to evaluate what your documents and data are worth to you.
Now contrast both of those options to the better alternative. Purchase a backup drive for $50-100, and schedule a few minutes each week to run a backup. Both Mac and Windows computers each come with backup software built-in to the computer, you just have to provide the external hard drive. For laptops, be sure to purchase a portable drive, which is powered by the computer when you plug it in. For desktop computers, use a desktop drive, which has its’ own power cord. The desktop drives are meant to be left plugged in to your computer all the time. They just sit behind your computer and quietly do their one job… to complete at least one backup every day. The portable drives, while cheaper, are not meant to be left plugged in to a desktop computer all the time. Doing so will shorten the life of your backup drive, so use these only for laptops, and break them out once a week to complete a backup.
Now, what about the cloud… aren’t my documents ‘up there?’ Well… maybe. It depends on your cloud settings. Popular choices include iCloud, One Drive, Google Drive, and Drop Box. All of these options can work well for those familiar with using the cloud to store documents. Some cloud services will store the contents of some folders in the cloud, but other folders are likely excluded. The cloud has limits that are not well understood, and I’d like to address those limitations.
When it comes to backing up your iPhone and iPad, those devices backup the entirety of their data to Apple’s iCloud. But iCloud (and other cloud services) don’t usually back up the entirety of your computer, and that’s because your computer is too big. Your computer typically holds much more data than mobile devices. You can often enable settings to back up a couple commonly used folders from your computer, but there will be exclusions. With Apple’s iCloud, you can only tell your Mac to store the contents of your Desktop and Documents folders to the cloud. For other cloud providers, you’ll have to look at your settings to see what can and what can’t be sent to the cloud. There will be likely be exclusions, and below is a list of folders that typically don’t go to the cloud, leaving some of your data at risk for loss in the scenario of a computer crash when you have no backup.
Applications – Any apps you install on your computer are stored locally on the internal hard drive. These can be re-installed on a new computer, but it takes time and energy to remember what apps you need and where you got them.
Downloads – Of course you can re-download anything, but most people have no idea what’s in their Downloads folder, and it’s usually… a lot.
Music – Song files are a little big for the cloud. Music you’ve purchased digitally can always be downloaded again, but any tunes you’ve ripped (copied) from CD’s may not be recoverable.
Photos – Depending on your settings, your photos could be in the cloud, and for many, they are in the cloud. That’s the good news, but also for many, items like scanned photos/documents, or photos copied from a flash drive, etc, reside in the Photos folder, but are excluded from the database/collection of photos that sync to the cloud. I find this to be the case on many clients’ computers, and so that is the bad news, that some photos/scans could be lost in a computer crash.
Movies – Although many people never do any video editing on their computer, those that do could lose movie and slideshow projects.
The User folder – Sometimes called the ‘Home’ folder, this folder is the ‘parent’ folder to other folders like Desktop, Documents, and Downloads. The User folder is not intended to be a place for documents and other data, but I can’t tell you how many times I find people have files stored here, when they should be in the Documents folder. This ‘parent’ folder is excluded from the cloud, even though some of its’ ‘child’ folders (Desktop and Documents) are included. Any items stored in this folder would also be lost in a crash.
Any data not cloud synced – Data like Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Tasks, Reminders, and Browser Bookmarks are often set to sync to the cloud. I find that many have the cloud setting turned Off for these apps, making data in those apps susceptible to loss.
But here’s the good news… guess what’s included in a backup with an external drive? Everything. Yes, EVERY… THING.
So even though, yes, it is possible to manage your computer in such a way to use the cloud as a backup, most computer users just don’t have the time, energy, or skills to make it happen. And when a backup drive will cost you $50 and 10 min per week, there is just no reason that everyone shouldn’t have an external backup drive. Using the cloud definitely has its’ place for syncing and backing up select documents. Having a backup on an external drive, however, makes dealing with a computer crash SO much easier!
In the event that I’ve convinced you to go get a backup, here’s two last words of advice. Most people don’t need anything bigger than 2TB for their backup, but sometimes you can’t find anything smaller than 3 or 4TB. That’s fine, just don’t let a salesperson convince you that you need anything more than 2TB. There are a lot of good brands out there… I like Seagate and Western Digital, both very popular, easy to find. You should also double check your computers’ ports to see what kind of plug you need with the new backup drive. Does the computer use a traditional USB plug, or the new slimmer USB-C plug? Don’t forget, get a portable external drive for a laptop, and an external desktop drive for a desktop computer.
Setting up your backup once you have the drive is another article yet to come, but your computer may walk you through the process once you plug it in. You can always let me know if you need help. To be continued…