One of the things that people don’t understand it the importance of Backups. The reason for this is in my opinion that backups seem like such hard work. Well, this is not the case anymore, backups have become a lot easier since the days where you had to make duplicate copies of all files onto External HDD.
Today we have multiple pieces of software that manage this for a Person and a lot of them have a Free Version. One of my favorite being Google Drive. Specifically, due to the 15 GB Free Storage, you get.
Lets jump into setting up Google Backup and Sync
Google Backup and Sync
Start by going to https://drive.google.com/ if you have a Google Account you will need to sign in. If not you can Create one for Free.
Once Signed in you will find a Little Gear Icon in the Right side of the Screen.
Once you clicked on it you can choose the option Get Drive for Desktop. If you go down the screen a bit you will Find for Individuals when you can then click Download Next to it, and with the Popup Click Agree and Download
Once the download is completed click it to start, you might have to allow the User Account Control. Click Yes. This will then start downloading the software and install once done.
The Cloud Icon with an Up arrow will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, you can click it and a new window will appear to Get Started. Once you clicked on it you will get the option to Sign in with your Google account. Notice that if you have a Two-Factor Authentication setup this will be required at this stage as well.
After you filled in the details and successfully Authenticated it will take you to what Google Suggest the Backups should be.
The things to keep in mind here is you are not limited to only those folders. You can Click on Choose folder and select additional folders. Thus if you have other places you store important file you don’t have to move it you can just add it to you backup list.
Then the two options below this give you option on how to handle photos. Unless you take very High-Res Photos I suggest choosing High Quality as this does not form Part of your Free 15 GB Storage. This also goes well with Google Photos and when it adds it the the Google Photos, your phone then sends you reminders of stuff that you did previously as per the date your photo was taken.
The Last option is Google Drive, This is anything you saved directly onto the cloud it will allow you to sync it to your Machine for Ease of access.
Personally I never backup my Data with the My PC Option. I rather Sync my Google Drive and sort my Data directly into there. This is a personal Preference but you can do as it suites you.
Set it and forget it
Once you click Start everything will start Syncing and you can sit back and have it do its own thing. Any changes you make to your Documents now will be automatically backed up.
Other Apps
Remember this is not the only Backup app that can be used.
I will follow this up with a DropBox and an OneDrive Setup to give you options to choose from.