WEBVTT - What's the best way to back up a computer's hard disk?

0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.640
<v Speaker 1>Jack Threads is the online shopping destination for dudes. Everything

0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:05.600
<v Speaker 1>on the side is up to eight percent off. All

0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.920
<v Speaker 1>styles are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen. What's

0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:10.920
<v Speaker 1>more is if you were brain Stuff, you can skip

0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.520
<v Speaker 1>the membership wait list and get instant access at jack

0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.480
<v Speaker 1>threads dot com slash stuff. Welcome to Brainstuff from house

0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:28.200
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com. We're smart happens h I am

0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.680
<v Speaker 1>Marshall Brain with today's question, how do you back up

0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.639
<v Speaker 1>the hard disk drive on your home or office computer?

0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.560
<v Speaker 1>Last week, we had a tragedy in the Brain household.

0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.800
<v Speaker 1>Our main hard disc died. We have six people in

0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.520
<v Speaker 1>the Brain family and a total of seven computers hooked

0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.280
<v Speaker 1>up to the network. The hard disc on the main

0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.440
<v Speaker 1>computer died. This is a tragedy because the main computer

0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>is the one that houses all our family files, most

0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.720
<v Speaker 1>importantly the forty seven thousand plus photos and videos of

0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.200
<v Speaker 1>the Brain kids growing up, but also financial records, business records,

0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.280
<v Speaker 1>book manuscripts, and so on. The main computer then shares

0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.800
<v Speaker 1>those files with all the other computers in the house

0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.960
<v Speaker 1>so that everyone can access them whenever they want to. Fortunately,

0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.920
<v Speaker 1>this turned out to be only a time tragedy rather

0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.360
<v Speaker 1>than a family memory tragedy. It took a lot of

0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.360
<v Speaker 1>time to replace that hard disk. It was not a

0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.200
<v Speaker 1>memory tragedy, however, because there was a backup from the

0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.440
<v Speaker 1>night before and we lost none of our files. If

0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:33.760
<v Speaker 1>there had not been a backup copy, there would be

0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.679
<v Speaker 1>nothing left of those forty seven thousand plus photos and

0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:38.839
<v Speaker 1>all the other files that were on that hard disk,

0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.000
<v Speaker 1>which brings up a good question. Have you backed up

0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.880
<v Speaker 1>your computer lately, and if not, what's the best way

0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:46.640
<v Speaker 1>to do it. Let's take a look at some of

0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.920
<v Speaker 1>the possibilities. There are three ways for you to back

0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.640
<v Speaker 1>up your hard disk. First, you can manually back it

0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.600
<v Speaker 1>up to an external hard drive. Second, you can get

0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.360
<v Speaker 1>an external hard drive that will automatically back it up,

0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.480
<v Speaker 1>or third you can back get up on the internet.

0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.880
<v Speaker 1>There are advantages and disadvantages to all three of these,

0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.200
<v Speaker 1>so we can look at them and see what those

0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:10.880
<v Speaker 1>advantages and disadvantages are. In the case of the Brain family,

0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.520
<v Speaker 1>we use option too. I bought an external hard drive

0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.160
<v Speaker 1>and it came with software that backs up the main

0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.280
<v Speaker 1>computer's hard disk automatically. If you want to go to

0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.000
<v Speaker 1>this route, go to the store and look at the

0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.400
<v Speaker 1>different external hard drive options. You can find external hard

0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.000
<v Speaker 1>drives just about anywhere at best Buy or New Egg

0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.760
<v Speaker 1>or Amazon. If an external hard drive comes with software

0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.680
<v Speaker 1>for backups, the box will talk about it. The question

0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.079
<v Speaker 1>you will have to answer is how big of an

0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.079
<v Speaker 1>external hard drive do you need? This depends on how

0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.440
<v Speaker 1>many files you have on your hard disk, which you

0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.200
<v Speaker 1>can easily discover using the Windows Explorer. And then you

0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.400
<v Speaker 1>right click on your documents folder and choose the properties option.

0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:54.600
<v Speaker 1>It'll tell you how many files you have and how

0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:56.720
<v Speaker 1>big they are. Let's say that you have a hundred

0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:01.280
<v Speaker 1>gigabytes of files in your documents folder. Five hundred gigabyte

0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.280
<v Speaker 1>external hard drive would be plenty big for that, and

0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.600
<v Speaker 1>these only cost about seventy dollars right now. So you

0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.840
<v Speaker 1>get home, you plug the external drive into your computer,

0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.280
<v Speaker 1>You spend a couple of minutes setting up the software,

0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.840
<v Speaker 1>You start the backup process, and bang, your files get

0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.040
<v Speaker 1>backed up. If you set a schedule, your files will

0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.840
<v Speaker 1>get backed up every day. Some drives, for example, something

0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.120
<v Speaker 1>called the My Book Essential, will even backup files the

0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.840
<v Speaker 1>instant you create or modify them. This is great. An

0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.560
<v Speaker 1>external hard drive will handle the case of a hard

0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.800
<v Speaker 1>drive crash on your computer, but it does not handle

0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.760
<v Speaker 1>the case of something like a lightning strike. A lightning

0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.400
<v Speaker 1>strike will destroy everything plugged into the wall, including your

0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.880
<v Speaker 1>computer and the backup drive. To eliminate this vulnerability, you

0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.360
<v Speaker 1>want an external backup drive that you unplugged and keep

0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.960
<v Speaker 1>in a safe place by a second external hard drive,

0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.880
<v Speaker 1>and use it for this purpose. You can back up

0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.320
<v Speaker 1>your files manually. Simply select your documents folder and drag

0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.000
<v Speaker 1>it over to the external hard drive folder after you

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.840
<v Speaker 1>plug the drive into your machine. When your computer is

0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.119
<v Speaker 1>done copying all the files, unplugged the drive and move

0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.760
<v Speaker 1>it to a safe place in your house somewhere. Make

0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.080
<v Speaker 1>sure it's not plugged into the wall. That works well,

0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.919
<v Speaker 1>but what if your house burns down. Now you're gonna

0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.719
<v Speaker 1>lose your computer and your backup and your extra backup.

0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.719
<v Speaker 1>You may want to keep a third external hard drive

0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.279
<v Speaker 1>at a trusted friends or relatives house or in a

0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.200
<v Speaker 1>safe deposit box at the bank. This is called an

0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.960
<v Speaker 1>offsite backup. You might swap it out only once a

0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.560
<v Speaker 1>week or once a month, but it's better than nothing.

0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.520
<v Speaker 1>Or there may be a company in your area that

0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:45.880
<v Speaker 1>specializes in offsite backups. All these external hard drives maybe

0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.400
<v Speaker 1>starting to sound like a pain in the neck. To

0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.559
<v Speaker 1>be adequately protected with them, you need two or three

0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.760
<v Speaker 1>and you have to rotate them periodically to maintain a

0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.560
<v Speaker 1>current offsite backup. That's why Internet backup services have become

0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.120
<v Speaker 1>so popular. You pay a monthly or an annual fee,

0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.560
<v Speaker 1>and your backup is kept with a company on the Internet.

0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.960
<v Speaker 1>Your computer backs itself up automatically through your Internet connection,

0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.000
<v Speaker 1>and you never have to worry about lightning strikes or

0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:19.000
<v Speaker 1>house fires. A number of companies sell these services, including Carbonite, Norton,

0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.160
<v Speaker 1>I Drive, Mosey, and many others. If you look on

0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.120
<v Speaker 1>the internet, it's easy to find articles that review all

0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.400
<v Speaker 1>these services and give you pricing. There are some extra

0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.640
<v Speaker 1>advantages offered by these online services that can make them

0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.400
<v Speaker 1>even more appealing, like the fact that you can then

0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.520
<v Speaker 1>access your files anywhere in the world once they're backed

0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.880
<v Speaker 1>up to the Internet server. The only disadvantage of these

0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:46.200
<v Speaker 1>Internet services is that most home Internet connections are fairly slow,

0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.040
<v Speaker 1>especially on the up link side. There's no way, as

0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.520
<v Speaker 1>far as I know, to use these services if you

0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.440
<v Speaker 1>have more than twenty or thirty gigabytes of data, and

0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.080
<v Speaker 1>if you have thirty gigabytes of data, it may take

0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:00.680
<v Speaker 1>more than a month to back up all your files

0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.559
<v Speaker 1>the first time if you're in the less than thirty

0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:08.120
<v Speaker 1>gigabyte ballpark. However, internet backup services are a very easy

0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.360
<v Speaker 1>and safe way to protect your data. Whatever you do

0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.440
<v Speaker 1>do something, especially if you're working on a laptop that

0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.960
<v Speaker 1>you cart around with you on a regular basis, the

0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.039
<v Speaker 1>probability of dropping it or losing it is pretty high.

0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.920
<v Speaker 1>Without a backup, you could lose it all. For more

0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.280
<v Speaker 1>on this and thousands of other topics. Because it has

0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:34.160
<v Speaker 1>staff works dot com, Jack threads is the online shopping

0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.599
<v Speaker 1>destination for dudes. Everything on the side is up to off,

0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.599
<v Speaker 1>all styles are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen.

0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:42.760
<v Speaker 1>What's more is, if you were brain stuff, you can

0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.480
<v Speaker 1>skip the membership wait list and get instant access at

0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.320
<v Speaker 1>jack threads dot com slash stuff