Losing data is annoying
Text documents, emails, photos, videos, music and plenty more are stored as digital files on our computers, smartphones and tablets. We can’t guarantee that they won’t get lost, however – things get deleted by mistake, there might be a technical issue, you device might be stolen, or you might pick up a virus. That’s why you should regularly back them up onto at least one alternative medium.
Key points to remember:
Regularly back up your data to an external hard drive, DVD, CD, or online to cloud storage.
Check all your data is included in your back-up, and that it can be restored properly.
Only connect your external back-up hard drive when you’re actually using it. Don’t keep your online storage device permanently connected either, only when you’re running a back-up.
Backups stop the worst happening
“I do backups as quickly and as often as I can, so I don’t lose my photos, contacts and other stuff if I lose my phone or it won’t work.”
Kaya, a student, knows from personal experience how useful it is to back up your smartphone data regularly.
Backing up your computer
With the ‘File History‘ option in Windows 10, you have convenient back-up features installed as standard:
Microsoft instructions
You can use the ‘Time Machine‘ functionality built in to macOS X to create backup copies of both your system and your data:
Apple instructions
Cloud storage offers another good option for backing up your data. In this case, it is held centrally on the internet. Further information can be found in our article on cloud storage.
Backing up your computer
Computers – whether desktops, laptops or notebooks – generally hold large volumes of data. That makes manual backups complicated and time-consuming. There are things you can do, however. Simplify the process by using Windows or macOS backup programmes.
Backing up your smartphone or tablet
Use a USB cable to connect your smartphone or tablet to your computer, then use the file manager (Explorer in Windows, Finder with Mac) to copy your files to your computer. There are other back-up processes too, which differ from one operating system to the next.
Backing up your smart devices
With iOS devices (iPhone, iPad etc.), use iTunes to back up onto a PC/Mac, or use iCloud:
Apple instructions
With Android devices, you can back up your most important data to the Google Drive servers:
Google instructions
OK with data backups?
Then go straight on to our next S-U-P-E-R tip.
Further information and contact points
Contact Points
Swiss Crime Prevention and the cantonal and municipal police forces (www.skppsc.ch)
«eBanking – but secure!» (EBAS) (www.ebas.ch)
National Cybersecurity Centre NCSC (www.ncsc.admin.ch)
iBarry – the internet security platform (www.ibarry.ch)
Cybercrimepolice (www.cybercrimepolice.ch)
