Backing Up Your Local Data in 2025
Managed, Monitored, and Reported = Not Possible with Built-In Windows Backup Solutions & External Hard Drives
2025 has started with Computer Clinic reassessing all technologies and solutions and looking at what can be done for the future. One area we have discovered are backups. Manufacturers of external hard drives, in particular ones that use just a USB cable to power them, are recommending that these drives should no longer be used for backups.
Manufacturers & Suppliers have also put a caveat on their products stating that these drives should also not be used for commercial purposes. This is because they have become unreliable and not a perfect way of backing up valuable data. Manufacturers are recommending a NAS box and/or a cloud option
A disclaimer from our local supplier. External USB Hard Drives are being supplied with lower quality / lower performing drives.
Alternative Local Back Up Solutions
Manufacturers are recommending a NAS box and/or a cloud option. Computer Clinic has started the year off unfortunately with a customer losing their data on an external drive due to it corrupting as it was backing up when the computer went to sleep, and this damaged the data on the drive. Therefore we now recommend a more modern solution where the backup can actually be monitored, managed and reported on instead of a plug it in and see how it goes approach. This new approach gives more security, reliability and confidence in backups. Most importantly it elminates human error (ie to remember to check the back up)
Cloud Options
We have a number of solutions available which are as low as $10 per device per month. These backups go to the cloud and are all automatic with regular reporting and alerts should anything go wrong.
See Computer Clinic to change your backup system to a more modern version - be it NAS or Cloud Based and throw away your old external hard drives.