When a computer hard drive fails, there aren’t any easy solutions that don’t involve a lot of stress, time, effort, and (worst of all) money.
Fortunately, with the widespread adoption of cloud-based backup tools, you can keep your most important data securely stored somewhere other than your computer’s hard drive.
Here are some tips for backing up your data. If you have specific questions about creating backups, or need help setting up a data backup plan, contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.
- Simmons Network Drives are available to all students, faculty, and staff. You can use your personal drive (Y: drive) as backup storage for files you do not want to share. Faculty and staff can also use department drives(G: drives) for files that need to be shared within a department or school. These drives are the ideal location for files containing sensitive information.
- Chrome is the recommended web browser for everyone at Simmons. Whether you’re using it for work or at home, you can sign into Chrome to back up your bookmarks, web history, and more. Signing in means that this information will be available on any other device when you sign into Chrome there. It also creates an almost seamless transition between Chrome on your computer and the Chrome app on your mobile devices. One security warning: be sure not to sign in on public workstations that other people can access.
- Google Drive stores and syncs data continuously. If you install the Google Drive app on your computer, it will sync files to the cloud and to a folder on your hard drive. The files are accessible and editable (some of them online, using Google Docs, Sheets, and Presentations) from any device with an Internet connection. Drive is an ideal space for storing data that you would not keep on your shared department drive (G: drive), which is the go-to spot for any files containing sensitive information, such as credit card and Social Security numbers.
Both Chrome and Google Drive are supported by Simmons Technology and our technicians can assist you in setting up and managing your data storage and backups.