After my last blog, A Dog, A Lake and An iPad, I had a few inquiries about cloud storage and backups. Hmmm, who would have thought that my experience would prompt a bit of fear in others! So I’ll take advantage of those inquiries and share a few details on clouds and backups.
Clouds – A magical place, not on your actual computer, where you can store files. The 3 most common ones are Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox. They are all very similar in the way they store files. Some have a greater storage capacity than others, some have a fee for more storage. Benefits to cloud storage:
- The files are not on your computer so if your computer crashes or is lost/stolen, the files are still accessible.
- In most cases, you can access the files from other devices or computers. So if you are travelling and you want to access a file, you can do so.
- You can use them as a back up – keep files on your computer but sync to a cloud as well. This is not a replacement for a full back up, but it does help to keep a second version of the files.
Backups – An absolute MUST DO for everyone with a computer. There are various ways to do a back up. It’s best to talk to a tech person to set one up properly so that your entire computer is backed up – which would include your software, settings, and files.
If you have an iPhone or iPad, you have automatic back up to iCloud so be sure it is set up.
And, finally, some people have asked me about OneNote. OneNote is an electronic notebook. It is a great way to save notes and data in a notebook format. As with Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox, you can have this saved in a cloud and access the info anywhere.
My upcoming Computer Clean Up Challenge will provide support in using clouds and OneNote to clean up your files, make them more easily accessible and help you stay more productive. Sign up for my newsletter or follow me on Facebook to be sure you hear of the start date and the special early bird sign up offer!