That’s why it’s critical to have everything backed up. You don’t want to be at the mercy of a crook behind devious attacks like ransomware. Keep reading and we’ll explain different ways to back up your devices and tell you which is the easiest. We recommend using our sponsor, IDrive. Back up all your PCs, Macs and mobile devices into ONE account at IDrive.com and use promo code Kim to get 50% off 5 terabytes of cloud backup! That’s less than $40for the first year.

Saving files to another drive

A popular way to back up critical files is to save them to either an external hard drive or a USB flash drive. External hard drives connect to one device at a time and are typically wired, but some actually have wireless capabilities. Some external drives now come with USB 3.0 technology, making the transfer rate about 10 times faster than USB 2.0. But you must ensure your computer is USB 3.0 compatible to take advantage of it. Once you have connected the external drive to your device, follow the instructions that came with it to transfer all the files you want to back up. You can also use a USB flash drive to back up files. But you must ensure the flash drive is large enough to handle the number of files you’re looking to store. One problem with these backup options is the location. What if there is a fire at your place and your device is destroyed along with the external hard drive or USB flash drive you used? What a disaster! Also, if you choose a USB flash drive, it can be easy to misplace. They are so small, it’s just too easy to lose them. That’s why it’s not considered a long-term storage solution.

Store your files in the cloud

Keeping your files in the cloud eliminates the problems we discussed with external and USB flash drives. A fire isn’t going to destroy your files in the cloud, and obviously, you’re not going to lose them. So this is a good option. Cloud backup creates copies of your files, so you have them on your computer or gadget and in the cloud. That way, you still have a copy if something happens to either one. This is why we often stress the importance of having a solid backup service that protects all your gadgets. You need something that protects everything within a single account. That’s why we recommend IDrive.

The easiest way to back up all of your devices

There is a service you can use that makes the process super easy. IDrive Express is a service personal customers can use free once per year, and business customers can use it three times annually without being charged extra. This service is part of IDrive Express Backup and gives you an additional option for recovering your files. You can quickly transfer large amounts of data to your online account without going through a tedious process. Just put in the request, and IDrive will ship you a physical hard drive with everything you need. Back up or retrieve several gigabytes of data within a week using a physical shipment of temporary storage devices sent by IDrive. All you need to do is use Local Backup from the IDrive application and securely back up or restore all your data from the hard drive, then return the drive to IDrive. Here are some reasons to use IDrive Express:

Quickly transfer large amounts of data to your online account in just a week or less.Data is kept safe throughout the process using military-grade 256-bit AES encryption with a private key option. For ensuring the utmost security, along with file data encryption, IDrive does file path encryption too.Once the data is transferred to your online account, you can continue with incremental backups.No bandwidth usage during data transfers.

You can use this service if you’re just starting with IDrive and need to get your records online quickly. This can save time for business owners or people with several devices. IDrive lets you back up all your PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads and Android devices into a single account. Just go to IDrive.com and use promo code Kim to get 50% off 5 terabytes of cloud backup. That’s less than $40for the first year.