Protect all those precious moments

Ihave a confession to make. Despite my frequent advice in this column to always back up personal data, bad luck unfortunately struck. My wife hadn’t backed up her smartphone for a few months, and the device got accidentally wiped, meaning we lost a few months’ worth of photos. Not a huge deal but in this case it meant we lost a lot of pics of our toddler growing up, which was a bit sad. (Ironically enough, it was the toddler who inadvertently wiped the phone! But that’s another story.)

It got me to thinking of all the ways we could have prevented this happening – little safeguards I could have easily put in place to make sure the photos were duplicated before they’d had a chance to get deleted. To be honest, it’s really easy to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you. There are apps that can instantly back up your photos – plus all your other important data – to the cloud. At the very least, you should keep a local backup on an external hard drive. Don’t be the guy writing this column! PETER DOCKRILL

What is it? Google Photos

How much? Free for photos up to 16MP

Pros: The fastest way to make sure your photos get backed up is to use a service like this. It instantaneously uploads your snaps (and videos) from your smartphone or PC to the cloud. It’s cross-platform and free for unlimited photo storage (up to 16MP), giving you a great online repository in case the worst happens.

Cons: If you want to store images that are higher in resolution than 16MP, then you’ll have to pay for Google Drive storage. photos.google.com

What is it? Seagate Backup Plus Hub (4TB)

How much? $229 Pros: Backing up photos online is a good plan for safeguarding your snaps, but what about keeping a local copy, plus storing all your other important personal data? The simplest backup plan is to bulk-copy all your photos and other files to your computer, then duplicate that to an automated, mirror-image backup on a roomy external drive.

Cons: None – but bear in mind that a local backup such as this is vulnerable if it’s the only duplicate you have. seagate.com

What is it? Dropbox

How much? From $11.58 a month for 1TB

Pros: We’ve now got photos backed up to the cloud but all our other data is only backed up on one external drive. It’s not a bad idea to have in place a secondary cloud backup such as Dropbox, then all your data is only ever a download away if you lose your local copy.

Cons: The downside with subscription services is the ongoing cost – in that case they’re much like an insurance policy. But irreplaceable personal data is one thing that’s definitely worth insuring. dropbox.com