Best backup for laptop

jjb · ‎05-19-2012

What is the best way to back up my pictures and videos on my laptop when it dies? I would want something that I could easily transfer to a new computer also. Thanks!

jackthebear · ‎03-11-2010

best way to back up my pictures and videos on my laptop

put this query into your search engine, and there will many hits

ChynnaBlue · ‎05-22-2012

Everything has pros and cons and you will have to pick what's best for you.

An external hard drive will back everything up locally and you will own it without having to pay a monthly or annual fee. But external hard drives can also fail. If your home gets hit by a flood or a fire, both your laptop and your backup drive can be lost.

Cloud storage means the data is out there in the cloud and not on your own device. If your house is hit by a floor or a fire, your backup data is elsewhere and should be safe. It requires a monthly or annual fee. If you cannot access the internet for any reason, you cannot access your cloud backup. Cloud storage can be hacked, just as your home system can. Make sure you choose a strong password and change it often.

I know some people who rely on their data, like contract workers or professional photographers, who backup to an external drive AND to the cloud so that they know that they won't lose someone's entire collection of wedding photos if something goes wrong.

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gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

@jjb wrote:
What is the best way to back up my pictures and videos on my laptop when it dies? I would want something that I could easily transfer to a new computer also. Thanks!

The answer is, it depends. The absolute best way is to use an offsite, fully automated cloud storage backup operation. My Android smartphone automatically backs up pictures/videos to the Google Photo cloud for me. I also have Amazon Prime and my Prime Photo app does the same to Amazon's cloud, so I have two online sources for my photos/videos in addition to the stored photos on the phone. Since they're stored on the cloud all you have to do is log in and download them to any device you want.

You can also use a portable hard drive to copy the photos over as a backup. The problem with those is that they can fail, and if something happens to your house (fire, flood, tornado, etc.) you lose your backup.

In general those are your two options. I personally prefer online storage. It's not terribly expensive and so far anyway, has been quite safe. (If you're a famous actress who people would literally do anything to see naked and you've got lots of naked photos/videos you want to store, you would likely be better off avoiding the cloud though. Anything can be hacked if there's enough incentive and lots of actresses (Jennifer Lawrence, and others) have discovered this the hard way. For "normal" people however storing normal photos, online storage is perfectly safe and secure.)

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Cats3000 · ‎10-07-2013

I have a LaCie "Rugged" 1TB external hard drive hooked up to my iMac. It's small, lightweight and portable. I think you could use it with a laptop.

glb613 · ‎03-09-2010

@jjb wrote:
What is the best way to back up my pictures and videos on my laptop when it dies? I would want something that I could easily transfer to a new computer also. Thanks!

I use several external hard drives. If your house burn or is destroyed, they will be destroyed as well. You can always store your external hard drive in your safe deposit box.

Nuttmeg · ‎03-09-2010

There is no best storage method to keep your files and photos safe. Here are suggestions. http://www.howtogeek.com/242428/whats-the-best-way-to-back-up-my-computer/

I use cloud storage from Carbonite, Google Drive,& Photo. I keep important files stored in a few places online. I use a HD to transfer data from one computer to another.

JGalt · ‎03-10-2010

I use Carbonite. It costs $60 a year and it backs up all the data on the laptop: files and photos. It does it automatically when the laptop is turned on and connected to the Internet. I have been very happy with it, because it was totally easy to transfer to a new laptop when I had to get one.

It does not back up programs. I have a bunch of games on my laptop that I had downloaded, no disk, so I guess I will lose those next time I upgrade my laptop.,

Nuttmeg · ‎03-09-2010

@JGalt wrote:
I use Carbonite. It costs $60 a year and it backs up all the data on the laptop: files and photos. It does it automatically when the laptop is turned on and connected to the Internet. I have been very happy with it, because it was totally easy to transfer to a new laptop when I had to get one.

It does not back up programs. I have a bunch of games on my laptop that I had downloaded, no disk, so I guess I will lose those next time I upgrade my laptop.,
@JGalt
Love Carbonite.

I use Belarc Advisors, a free program, to tell me what is installed on my computer. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html. You can print out this summary to help when setting up a new computer.

grannyjan · ‎08-19-2010

I have been using Carbonite for my backups for over 2 years, love it. It just sits there and does it's job and don't bug me till it is time to re-new.....I don't mind paying for something that works well.

I got my new desktop with Windows 10 on it and my pictures go everywhere Google cloud, MS cloud and it is driving me nuts..I take a picture on my phone it goes up there I put photos on my computer from my camera and they go up there too....I am in the process of stopping all that the cloud storage is all free, I have over 20 GB up in the clouds....

Depends on how you want to backup I put all photos on a disk so I can quickly copy for the kids. But those are still all backed up all over the place but I like Carbonite best....

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