All students and staff are expected to maintain their own backup of documents on their computers. This is especially important when you are leaving ISB and when you are turning in your laptop for a new device.

There are three suggested options for maintaining ongoing backups of your computer:

  1. The suggested method for backing up is to use the OneDrive app on your computer. This will sync folders and files between your computer and OneDrive as they are being updated. It uses your existing ISB Microsoft account. This is best when you want to have access to your “live” files from any computer. You can find detailed instructions on how to set this up for students and for staff. You must be signed in with your ISB Microsoft account (students, staff, or parent) in order to view those documents.

    • Pro: Customizable way to back up your documents and desktop folders; you can also sync other folders from OneDrive to your computer, making those documents accessible without an internet connection; makes all of these files accessible from any computer, just log into OneDrive on the new computer to access the files.
    • Con: It can use a lot of time/bandwidth initially; it can have problems with multi-factor authentication for teachers; it doesn’t create an archive of the files, so if you delete it off your computer, you also delete it from the cloud and vice versa.
  2. Another method is to use Apple TimeMachine. This method will scan your hard drive when you run the program and update only the files that have been modified since the last time you did your backup.
    • Pro: Once you set it up, it is efficient in that it only updates what is needed.
    • Con: It can be confusing to set up; it is sometimes difficult to restore the file that you are looking for; you must use the same hard drive/flash drive and it works best when done at regular intervals

  3. Photo by Martin May via Unsplash

    The simplest method is to simply drag the files that you want to backup onto an external hard drive, flash drive, etc. Usually, the important files you want are either on your desktop or in your documents folder so you can just make a copy of those locations. If you have other files, then you will need to find them and back them up.

    • Pro: It’s easy; simply drag and drop! (It is sometimes easier if you put all of the files you want to backup into a single folder and then just drag that one folder onto the drive)
    • Con: You will be replacing files that don’t need to be updated; it can take up a lot of space; you will need to manage the different backup folders; if you aren’t careful,  you will end up with multiple copies of the same document, making it hard to find the most recent version.