Personal Data Backup

IMPORTANT: University Departmental Users

University departmental users should contact their IT support staff to determine the best option for backing up data. The information in this site is intended primarily for home computers and personal machines.

Personal Data Backup Overview

With the rapid increase in the "digital lifestyle" we find more and more of our personal possessions on our computers as little bits of ones and zeroes. Pictures, home movies, music, school work, financial information, and more are all now regularly stored on our computers. With this greater digitization of our life style comes the greater possibility of a catastrophic loss. Sometimes it may be the loss of just a few documents from school or work. But in the worst case it could be an entire hard drive containing gigabytes worth of pictures, movies, school work, and important financial information. We are all only one computer virus, hardware failure, or user error away from losing that important digital information.

Although this may seem rather bleak, there is no reason to go back to keeping hard copies of all of our information. There are a multitude of tools available today to help you keep your data from being lost. The ITS Help Desk highly recommends a proactive approach to computing - scanning for and preventing viruses, spyware, adware, and malware; keeping your system up-to-date with the latest operation system patches; and keeping current backups of your data readily available and easily accessible.

The ITS Security Center has more information about keeping your computer safe and free from viruses and spyware. The instructions below are intended to provide various methods available to you for backing up your personal data and other pertinent information.

Contact the ITS Help Desk at 4-HELP (4-4357) or its-helpdesk@uiowa.edu if you need assistance or have any questions.