These days, some of our most treasured possessions are not physical, but digital: photographs of family occasions, word documents that contain that novel you’re writing, or blocks of code for the game you’re designing with friends. All those creative files represent the hard work and memories, and are often considered more important than the storage device itself. You probably know this feeling if you’ve ever had the thought, “If my laptop gets stolen, I just hope I can get my files back”.
Of course, there’s an issue with this line of thought: data can be lost a thousand ways: stolen devices, computer glitches, poolside accidents, or even floods and other natural disasters. How does one protect their creations, their work, and those all-important family photos?
There are many good choices. Many first consider a backup hard drive. However, while a viable choice, they can also be stolen, lost, or broken (not to mention costly). You may also consider taking extra good care of the device in question… but accidents are bound to happen!
So, we’re looking for an easy and free way to back up those important files in a place safer than any other. Where else has those qualities but the internet itself?
What is this… Internet?
The internet itself is actually composed of huge data banks owned by large corporations, which place those files in storehouses located in the safest places on earth – like Sedona – which are known for experiencing the fewest number of natural disasters.
When you upload documents to the cloud, companies like Amazon, Facebook, or Microsoft store your information here. Since a great part of their business actually comes from housing data, these companies stake much of their reputation on keeping their storage houses safe. You can rely on them if you can rely on anything.
What is this… Google Drive?
If you want your information stored in one of those huge, secure, internet storage banks in an easily accessible way, Google Drive supplies an outlet for just that purpose! While Google also provides services to other large corporations, they initiated Drive for the average, everyday user.
If you’re not already sold…
Go to the Drive website and make an account. Immediately after that, you’re given a space for your files. Here’s a mock file we created!
As you can see, there is a space meant for backups on the bottom left side:
If you don’t wish to use this, remember that any file will store your data much the same. Open any folder – “Backups” included – and adding files will be simple as dragging and dropping. Try it out!
Guess what? Your files are now safe! You can access them easily, download new versions, and delete them if you wish.
Even better, Google allows you a number of other options. By selecting the “New” button you can create spreadsheets, presentations, and word processing files, along with new folders to house and arrange your documents:
Want to work with one of your documents? Open Drive, go to its folder, and use a right-click on the file. You receive these options:
Going down the list, there are tons of quick options! View the file, share in multiple ways, designate a star or new name to the file, manage details, copy, download, and delete. It’s as easy as that.
Outtro
There are a number of great websites that store your information in a centralized location. However, Google’s wealth of experience and their free services (up to 15 gigabytes, as you may have noticed) have no equal at this time. If you’re looking to store important files under the data limit, we recommend trying Drive!
