7 Ways to Protect Your Computer Equipment & Files

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girl working on computer

As a professional blogger, I’ve lost a handful of articles due to technical failures and not backing up my work. I imagine, whether you’re a blogger or not, this may have happened to you as well. Frustrating, to say the least, right? With increasingly strong natural disasters due to climate change andtechnical failures it’s important that we back up our work in order to remain as efficient as possible — efficiency isn’t only about the technology we use.

With my computerbeing central to my work, I have picked up a few tricks for protecting and backing up my equipment and files. Here are 7 of them:

  1. Starting with the most obvious, save important work on an external hard drive, CD, or DVD.
  2. I’m not the best at keeping up with that first step, but a similar option that’s a little quicker is saving your work on email. I use Gmail, which I consider to be pretty secure and stable. I sometimes email myself something or just put it in a draft email (love that gmail saves every few seconds) to make sure I don’t lose something important. ( You can also save files this way by attaching them to the email.)
  3. Similarly, you can use that approach with other online services – dropbox, facebook, Google+, scribd, etc.
  4. Of course, you also need to make sure you have good computer security software. I bought a new computer this year (luckily, right before our old computer died) and checked in with the tech wizards at reddit to see what the best option was. Without a doubt, the #1 recommendation was Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).
  5. In addition to MSE, however, it was recommended that I use other scanning tools as well (i.e. Spybot, Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware).
  6. Beyond the software, protect the hardware! Sleek, savvy, and sophisticated power protection from Eaton’s new 3S battery backup is a top option. It’s an ideal solution for home office/small office computers and accessories, networking and VoIP systems, and home entertainment devices. Learn more at: Eaton 3S UPS. Note that its EcoControl “provides up to 30 percent greater energy savings than typical battery backups” – something we’re obviously all about here on CleanTechnica.
  7. Don’t leave your computer unattended near thieves. OK, yes, this one’s a bit of a joke. However, do use common sense when out in public – leaving your stuff even slightly unattended can result in a nightmare of a situation.

Full disclosure: CleanTechnica received compensation and a demo product for writing this post. Nonetheless, all views are the author’s own and this post has genuinely been written to help you out.

Girl working on computer via shutterstock


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7324 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan