People who have experienced a computer crashing in the middle of typing a document will know the frustration of losing an unsaved document. Even purchasing a new computer means having to transfer files from your old device on to the new.
This is why it is a good idea to keep back up copies of all documents, images, videos and other important files.
Most people use cloud software to back up their files. This software will usually automatically back up all of your files which you can easily access if you need to. The files are stored by a cloud computing provider on large servers with massive amounts of storage. Examples of cloud computing providers are iCloud, DropBox, Microsoft Drive and Amazon Drive.
However, some people would prefer not to use cloud software to back up documents for many reasons including security concerns, the need for internet access to recover documents and the time and effort required.
Don’t worry though there are other ways of creating copies of documents to ensure you do not lose them permanently.
Email it to yourself. You can email documents to yourself meaning they always be available when you log on to your email account. Your email account will not be impacted if your computer breaks or is lost or stolen so the document will not be lost.
Message it to someone. As well as attaching documents to an email, you can also attach documents to messages on social media sites including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Twitter. If you are happy to share it you can send the document to someone else using one of these apps so you can find it easily by scrolling back through your messages. Just make sure they are happy with this and the message does not contain anything confidential.
Save to a USB. A USB drive is a small device that can be connected to a computer and is used for storing files such as documents, photos or videos. USBs can be password protected and are easy to carry around. They are pretty cheap to purchase although sometimes can be picked up for free as part of a goodie bag from an event.
Print it. Although you should try to avoid printing as much as possible to save paper you may wish to consider printing off any important documents that you cannot lose. Remember to keep them somewhere safe.
