Many of us have heard sad stories about photos and videos that disappeared after reinstalling Windows, getting malicious software, or having too little available memory. Overheating the laptop is another widespread problem students face as well.
But here’s a more sensitive issue – and this is losing study notes and essential school papers! You certainly put a lot of work and time into organizing them. No doubt, it would be a huge disappointment to lose these documents in the nick of time. Luckily, there are many ways to save important files no matter what. Below, we have collected 10 tips on how to protect yourself from unexpected circumstances and risks.
But before we begin, let us share one more way to always keep your school business under control. More and more learners appreciate essay writing services as they provide help with any kind of task. Whether you are working on a literature review, thesis, or speech about yourself, experienced authors always have your back. With their assistance, close deadlines and teachers’ expectations will no longer be a problem for you.
1. Know When Your Computer Is In Danger
Let’s start with the most common situations that lead to a computer crash. Surely, you’d better avoid them:
- Viruses and malicious software;
- Loss of data caused by inappropriate hard drive formatting;
- The use of cleaning programs that speed up the system.
But the good news is that your data won’t be deleted or lost forever if you’ve taken a number of steps to save the necessary information.
2. Take Advantage Of An External Hard Drive
This is probably the oldest but most effective way to avoid data loss. If you store all your records from the last school year on the hard drive of your laptop, then why not make a backup copy on an external drive? Moreover, it’s quite simple: you just buy the device and copy files on it, and that’s it.
Develop the habit of backing up your information to an external hard drive or flash drive weekly or monthly. It’s a very small investment of your time that will save you from many problems.
3. Copy Your Notes To The Cloud
This tip is even simpler since you don’t have to buy and store external hard drives somewhere. Choose one of the popular cloud services, such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and so on – the list is quite large. In addition, it will be much easier for you to share notes with friends, whether your research about special education or ideas for a future marketing project.
Another advantage of this method is that such platforms provide you with synchronization services. Thanks to them, you will keep several copies on various devices simultaneously. However, the downside is that you will have to pay to store large amounts of data.
4. Use Time Machine For macOS
Copying files manually can be boring. But luckily, macOS has an automatic file backup feature, although many don’t know about it. So, use this opportunity before it’s not too late. The advantage is that the Time Machine function will work automatically and copy files that have been added or changed recently.
5. Rely On A Builtin- Windows Backup
Windows has the same feature as macOS. Generally speaking, its capabilities are the same. The built-in backup analyzes files and copies everything that has changed to the drive you’ve chosen. This way, finding a lost file, and even a certain version of it, won’t be difficult.
6. Never Underestimate an Antivirus
Viruses enter your computer in numerous ways. For instance, you may open an infected file attached to an email or visit a website that uses security holes in your system to destroy information.
Don’t neglect installing the antivirus: you never know how attackers will harm users the next time. Malicious programs can steal personal data or even completely delete it from your computer’s memory. There are many antivirus programs on the market that help fight them. Fortunately, an annual license to use such a program is quite affordable.
7. Use Surge Protection
A power surge often caused by the electricity supplier remains a widespread cause of data loss and hard drive damage. Sometimes the users are warned about possible power surges, so you should unplug your computer from the network in advance.
8. Reach Out To The Specialist
When there’s a necessity to make serious system changes, sometimes it’s not enough to follow a YouTube guide. Especially when there’s valuable data on your computer, you certainly don’t want to lose. Don’t do anything like installing a hard drive unless you are experienced in it. Indeed, relying on a professional is much better than losing key information by accident, right?
9. Shut Down Your Computer Properly
We often close the computer in a hurry, forgetting to check if we exited all programs correctly. And basically, this is extra necessary for saving the files in the right way. If you turn off your computer without closing active programs, the risk of losing information increases.
10. Be Careful When Outside
Anything that can happen outside: dropping, hitting, or damaging a laptop is quite possible when you don’t work at your desk. Thus, don’t think it’s a good idea to work near an outdoor pool. What if the water gets on it? The same goes for travel – make sure that the computer will not be damaged during transportation. All in all, keep in mind that the computer is fragile, so it’s best to stay attentive all the time.
To Wrap It Up
The files stored on computers are often very valuable, especially in student years. If the equipment works without failures, we rarely pay attention to it. However, the data may be lost forever due to unforeseen events. Hopefully, using the above recommendations, you will save your notes no matter what.