Uploading your data to the internet also takes longer than saving it on a NAS or external drive.

Internet Connection: If you don't have an internet connection, your backups will fail.

If you suffer from a flood, fire, robbery, or hard drive failure, you won't lose your data.

Offsite: All your backups are kept offsite.

You can either use a cloud drive or a dedicated backup company.īoth approaches share one significant advantage and one major disadvantage: There are two ways you can use online services to back up your data. You can always transfer your data onto an alternative media later. Of course, their capacity means they're not suitable for system images or huge backups, but they will always be a fast and easy-to-use option if you're in a hurry. What About USB Flash Drives?įor quick and easy backups, you can use a USB flash drive. Unlike NAS drives and online services, they are not easily expandable.

Lastly, if you have a lot of data, external hard drives might not be suitable. Almost all the models are wired, and you can only connect them to one computer at a time.Īnd, because external hard drives are portable, they will probably be exposed to more wear-and-tear than a NAS drive-consequently, the hard drive is more likely to fail. However, external hard drives lack the convenience factor of a NAS drive.

Note: If you don't have one, check out the reasonably-priced 2TB Western Digital model on Amazon. Many people will probably have one already lying around their home. External hard drives are cheap, readily available, and have a low learning curve.

Personal computer backup