Have you ever heard of the 3-2-1 rule for backing up your data? At a minimum you should have:

3 – total copies of your data

2 – copies of your data on different devices onsite

1 – offsite backup

Following this strategy makes it extremely unlikely that you’ll lose your important files. While you’re at work, you can place a copy of important documents in your department’s shared “P-Drive” and our backup processes will take care of the rest. You could also keep a copy of your non-sensitive files in your OneDrive and on an external drive. This would provide three total copies of your data (your computer, OneDrive account, and external drive) on two different devices onsite (your computer and external drive) and one offsite backup (OneDrive). If you have an encrypted computer, please contact GHC ITS (rt@highlands.edu) so we can assist you with setting up encryption on an external drive for backups.

What about your home computer(s)? The Wirecutter has an excellent article detailing both local and cloud-based backup strategies and how to get started with each. You can read more at: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/how-to-back-up-your-computer/