Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Security, Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy

With so much of our data being stored online and in the cloud, you might think data backups are a thing of the past—they aren’t. Data stored online can be corrupted or deleted by accident, so you should also keep local copies, just in case. 

To back up University computers and devices, please check with your local computing support about the available options and resources. 

Backing up your personal computer:

• Apple hosts Time Machine, an application that allows you to back up your computer (both operating system and data) to an external hard drive. To store your data, you will need a compatible dedicated external hard drive with twice the storage capacity of your Macintosh’s hard drive. Time Machine can back up automatically, and you can also create manual backups. Time Machine also allows you to restore your entire computer or recover individual files. Directions and more information can be found on Apple’s website. 
• For Windows computers, the options are more complicated, but you can also create a complete backup of your operating system and data. You can also back up your files only. As with Time Machine, you will need an external hard drive to store the backup.
• Windows users would use Windows Backup & Restore and File History to back up your computer and files. Directions and more information can be found on Microsoft’s website. 

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For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead.