Academic Computing Services

Our message to stop using floppy disk has gotten out there, and it seems just about everyone has started using USB drives to save their files.

But USB drives by themselves are not sufficient, because they can be lost, stolen, and in rare cases stop working properly. Without a backup copy of your files, your work is gone.

We urge you not to learn this lesson the hard way. Backup before you need it, because it can happen without warning.

Good backup plans include the following options:

• email yourself the file
• use a second USB drive
• print your paper (you can scan it and create a new file from the text)
• burn a CD or DVD
• use an online file-hosting service, such as .Mac or filesanywhere.com/