Back That Thang Up

Earlier this week I had a scare with my computer. After five years, my MacBook is starting to get old and act up. On Wednesday, even after being on the charger all night (I know this isn’t good for my battery life! But hey, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do) my computer still wouldn’t turn on. This has been one of the busiest weeks of the semester for me, so I instantly began to panic at the thought of losing all my precious work. Luckily for me, after a tense three hours, Wired was able to get my computer up and running again and I didn’t lose any of my work.

But this scare was too close for comfort—what if I had lost all my documents? Or what if this happens to me again next year with all my grad school stuff? In order to assuage my fears, I have decided to learn how to back up all my files, something that I should definitely know how to do by now. Turns out there are multiple options for backing up your files so I decided to start with the least complicated one: Drop Box.

Drop Box is a free service that lets you store your files online. You can also use Drop Box to share files with other people. I already had a Drop Box account set up from a class, so I just had to add my files to my account. If you don’t already have a Drop Box account, it’s super easy to do—just follow their instructions and voila you have an account! I’m currently in the process of uploading all my music to DropBox, the only downside is that it’s estimating that it will take four more hours. After my music its safe, I’m going to add another folder of my documents from this semester and my pictures from abroad.

I know that there’s definitely something better out there than Drop Box, but it’s great for peace of mind in a pinch. I’m looking into getting an external hard drive so that I can use Time Machine and on my next computer I’m definitely setting up iCloud.