There are few things worse than working hard on a paper or a project, spending hours researching and writing only to lose that work and not be able to retrieve it.  This can be just as frustrating when all your past work is lost because of a computer crash, lost flash drive, etc.   Backing up your files is increasingly important, but often it’s something you don’t consider until it’s too late.  Here are some strategies to make backing up easy.  Take a look.  Your future self will thank you.

Lifehacker did a feature on the various methods for recovering deleted files.  This is for those moments when you’ve deleted a file and you realize it right away.  Won’t work for every situtation, but when this happens, here are some helpful tips.

It’s now also possible to store your data and files “in the cloud.”  This allows you to keep all your important items on a remote server that really helps if you delete something on your own machine or if your laptop is stolen or otherwise damaged.  Some of these options allow you to schedule backups automatically, so your data is backed up without requiring you to remember to do so.  Mozy and Carbonite are two of the leaders in this area, but there are many providers, all with their own storage limits, features, strengths, weaknesses and pricing models.  Look to the comments about various providers in this blog post to get a sense of some of your options.

Lifehacker gives you step-by-step instructions for setting up automatic backups to an external hard drive.

Finally, Wired magazine provides a feature with several backup options for Windows PC users and Mac Users.

Have you found any backup strategies that are easy and effective?

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swanksalot/ / CC BY-SA 2.0