Chances are you don’t leave the house without your cellphone. And chances are you’ve managed to accumulate a number of photos and videos on that device. Make sure your phone gets included in your data backup plans or risk losing all those valuable pics if your phone is lost or damaged!
You can complete backups automatically using a cloud service like iCloud, Mozy, iDrive or SkyDrive to backup your entire phone or just photos. Accounts can be free or maybe only $5 per month, so well worth the investment in time to get one set up. Since your data is stored away from your home or office, your data will be safe if disaster strikes that physical location and it will take place for you without your routine involvement.
You can also set up a manual process for yourself backing up your phone to an external hard drive or USB drive; just plug the drive into your computer USB drive. A Windows computer will see the new drive automatically and many external drives come with a backup program you can use. Or use CDs or DVDs. This process can be lengthy and you may have to swap out discs so you’ll need to be available while it completes. You’ll probably want to keep a catalog of sorts to be able to find what you’re looking for later, if you have a large volume of stuff to backup. Set up a calendar reminder for yourself to prompt you to complete this process regularly.
