Every so often I get a call from someone who bought a new laptop, boxed up the old one, and only later realised their photos, documents, or saved passwords never made the trip across. It's one of the most avoidable tech headaches out there.
Don't rely on just one copy, anywhere
The safest approach follows a simple rule: keep your files in at least two places, ideally three - for example, on the computer itself, on an external drive, and in a cloud backup like OneDrive or Google Drive. If a hard drive fails or a laptop is lost, having only one copy means everything on it is gone for good.
What people forget to back up
It's not just the obvious folders. Commonly missed items include:
- Browser bookmarks and saved passwords
- Email that's stored locally rather than online
- Photos that were only ever on the phone, never synced anywhere
- Software licence keys needed to reinstall paid programs
- Files saved to the Desktop rather than Documents (easy to miss when copying folders)
Before you buy a new computer
If you're planning to upgrade soon, it's worth getting a proper backup sorted before the new machine arrives, not after. That way the move to a new PC becomes a simple transfer job rather than a stressful hunt through an old hard drive trying to recover what's missing.
If you'd like a hand backing up an old computer or transferring everything to a new one, that's a job I do regularly - get in touch for a free quote.