Once connected, which involves little more than plugging it in, you can drag and drop or copy files you want from your computer's hard drive to the external drive. How does it work?Д®xternal drives connect to your computer to provide extra storage, usually with a USB cable. Others are much larger and are designed to sit on your desk.

Many are often small and portable, making them easy to stow away in a desk drawer or carry with you. 1: External hard drive What is it?ДЄn external hard drive is a hard disk drive just like the one inside your computer, where you can store any kind of file. You'll need to replace them after several years or so to ensure they don't fail, destroying your files in the process.ДЇor a deeper dive on this topic, check out CNET's guide to digital storage.Д®xternal hard drives come in many sizes and styles. Also, beware that physical storage solutions, like external hard drives and flash drives I outline below can break down over time. Get in the habit of backing up files on a regular basis, every week or month or whenever you get new important documents and pictures. The more backups you have, the better, but two to three should be fine for most. You can even keep copies on a secondary computer, if available. Make sure to store copies of files and photos on your computer and in two or more of the methods listed below. The best way to ensure that you do not lose important documents and photos is to not rely solely on one backup method.

Multiple backups: Why they're importantД«efore diving into the ways to back up your files, I want to talk about multiple backups. This guide gives you the basics on the various choices you have to back up your files and the tips to make it easy. It minimizes the risk that you'll lose your tax documents, baby's pictures and school work in the event of theft, fire or hard drive failure.Д«acking up files and photos isn't hard, but with several different ways to go about it, it can be confusing to get started. Creating a backup of your precious and important files is crucial.

Easy backup & restore