Backing Up Your Computer Files

We've recently experienced some issues with our network that have left some of us worried our computer files were lost. Some of us keep losing them. Here's my take on why this happens and what you should do.

Why: 

Your computer automatically syncs anything saved to your Documents folder to the district network (unless you've changed the settings to sync differently.) When the network is slow and you have a large amount of data saved there in your files, the syncing can just "give up."

What to do:

Short version: Save any files on your computer that you'd like to keep to the Google Drive folder on your computer. Then delete everything you have saved in the Documents folder on your computer. From then on, only save things to the Google Drive folder. If you're a person who saves things to other folders, such as your Desktop, you will also want to include this in your move over to Drive.

The details: Back up your existing files to Google Drive. You can save any file type to Google Drive, including photos, videos, Word documents, etc. Click the Google Drive triangle icon in the top right of your screen, do a spotlight search through the magnifying glass icon, or open the Finder window and look on the left side.  Google Drive is a folder. (If you do not have this folder, you do not have Google Drive set up on your computer. Follow these directions from step 4 on.)

Copy your files in their existing folders and paste them into Google Drive. You will want to make sure you get those from Documents especially, but may want to do so in other locations you have things saved (Desktop, etc.)

This is also a time to purge things you really do not need anymore. The files and folders synced do still take up storage space on your computer (even though online Google Drive storage is basically unlimited since you have a Google Apps for Education account.) 

It's also an important time to think about how you want to organize these files. I would recommend organizing folders in your Google Drive first for any existing documents plus what you'd like to transfer the files to from your computer. 

Then go back to your Documents folder and delete everything after you've transferred it.

From this point forward when you save any file, click "Save As" and choose the Google Drive folder instead of Documents. You can find your folders and it acts just as any other folder. 

Tip: You'll need to make sure the Google Drive icon appears in the bar at the top of the screen when you want to save files and have them sync online with Google Drive. (This is what saves them online and is the backup.)

Ahhh, doesn't organizing feel good? And making this change now may save you lots of frustration down the road.

**Other storage options: Dropbox and Box are free cloud storage accounts you can set up.