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This guide will walk you through the steps to back up data on your computer or smartphone. Creating a backup ensures you have a duplicate of your data, allowing for recovery in case your device is damaged or data is lost.
Steps to Follow
On Windows Operating System
Connect an external hard drive to your Windows computer. Use one of the USB ports on your computer to establish the connection. To back up your Windows computer, an external hard drive is essential for storing the backup data.
- Ensure the external hard drive is formatted to be compatible with your computer for efficient operation.
- Alternatively, you can use a large-capacity flash drive for this step.
Click on the Backup tab located at the top-left corner of the Update & Security page.
Select Add a drive at the top of the page, and a list of available options will appear.
Choose your external hard drive. Click on the name of your external hard drive from the list to set it as the backup drive for your computer.
Click on the More options link located below the "On" slider near the top of the page.
Click on Back up now in the top-left corner of the page. This action will prompt Windows to initiate the backup process and start transferring data to the external hard drive.
- You may need to click Back up now multiple times before the backup begins.
Wait for the backup process to complete. You will see a "Backup completed" notification at the bottom-right corner of the screen once the backup is finished; you can now safely disconnect the external hard drive.
On macOS
Connect an external hard drive to your Mac. Use one of the USB-C ports on your computer to establish the connection. To back up data on macOS, you will need an external hard drive to store the backup files.
- The external hard drive must be formatted to be compatible with your Mac for efficient operation.
- You can also use a high-capacity flash drive for this step.
- If the external hard drive uses a USB 3.0 connection, you will need a USB 3.0 to USB-C adapter to connect it to your Mac.
Click on System Preferences… near the top of the menu.
Click on the Time Machine application with the green clock icon, and the Time Machine window will appear on your screen.
Click on Select Backup Disk… (Choose Backup Disk) near the top of the page to open a new window.
Select the external hard drive. Click on the name of the external hard drive in the window.
Click on Use Disk (Use Disk) at the bottom of the window to set the external hard drive as the backup disk for Time Machine on your Mac.
Click on the Time Machine clock icon in the top-right corner of the screen to open the selection menu.
Click on Back Up Now (Back Up Now) near the top of the selection menu. This will prompt Time Machine to start backing up the data on your Mac to the external hard drive.
Wait for the backup process to complete. You will see a notification saying "Time Machine has finished..." (Time Machine has completed…) once the backup is done; at this point, you can safely eject and disconnect the external hard drive.
On iPhone
Connect your iPhone to the computer using the iPhone's USB charging cable.
Launch the iTunes app, recognizable by its multicolored musical note on a white background.
- If prompted to update iTunes, click on Download iTunes and wait for the update to install. You may need to restart your computer after this step to proceed.
Click on the iPhone icon (or iPad icon if you're backing up an iPad) located at the top-left corner of the iTunes window to access the iPhone's page.
Click on Back Up Now (Back Up Now) in the "Backups" section on the iPhone's page.
Click on Transfer Purchases (Transfer Purchases). If you've bought items from the iTunes Store on your iPhone, you'll be asked if you want to save these items to your computer. Click Transfer Purchases if you wish to save them.
Click the blue Done (Done) button at the bottom-right corner of the window.
- When prompted, click Apply (Apply) before proceeding.
Wait for the iPhone to complete the backup process. This usually takes no more than 10 minutes. Once the backup is finished, you'll hear a sound, and the progress bar at the top of the window will disappear. At this point, you can safely disconnect your iPhone from the computer.
Back up data using iCloud.
Settings
On the Android operating system
- You can also use two fingers to swipe down from the top of the screen and then tap the gear icon located at the top right or bottom left corner.
Scroll down and choose Backup and reset near the middle of the Settings page.
Select Back up my data under the "Google account" section.
Check the box next to On to enable automatic backup for your Android device.
Tap the "Back" arrow located at the top-left corner of the screen.
Ensure your Google account is set as the backup account. Tap on Backup account and look for your Gmail address. If the email address is not visible, select Add account and enter the email and password for the Google account you wish to use.
Turn on “Automatic Restore”.
Tap the "Back" button to return to the Settings page.
Swipe up and select Accounts near the top of the page. The final step is to ensure your Google account information will be backed up.
Choose Google at the top of the page.
Select your Google account. Tap on the account you wish to back up.
Ensure everything is set up for backup.
- The colored slider next to an information source indicates that the data will be saved.
- You don’t need to back up all data; just ensure the items you care about have backup enabled.
Tips
- You can create a copy of your hard drive as a way to back up all files, settings, etc. This copy can be burned to a disk for data recovery in case your computer fails.
- If you don’t have an external hard drive and only need to back up a few items, consider using Google Drive or Dropbox to store your data.
Warning
- Don’t rely solely on scheduled backups. Make it a habit to manually back up your information on both personal and work computers at least once a week.
