Hard Drive Backup

Best external hard drives

• Seagate Backup Plus 2TB ($65) — most popular.
• WD Easystore 4TB ($90) — Costco often has on sale.
• Samsung T7 SSD 1TB ($90) — fast + small + tough.
• SanDisk Extreme 2TB ($150) — toughest portable.
• 2TB enough for most senior households.
• 4TB for those with photos + videos.

Backup strategy

"3-2-1 rule":

• 3 copies of important files.
• 2 different storage types (computer + external drive).
• 1 OFFSITE (cloud OR drive at relative's house).

Mac — Time Machine

1. Plug in external drive.
2. Mac asks "Use as Time Machine drive?" → Yes.
3. Auto-backs up hourly forever.
4. Free + built-in.
5. To restore: System Settings → Time Machine → Restore from backup.

Windows — File History

1. Plug in external drive.
2. Settings → Update + Security → Backup → "Back up using File History" → ON.
3. Pick external drive.
4. Auto-backs up files hourly.
5. Free + built-in.

Cloud backup (offsite)

• iCloud / Google Drive / OneDrive — for photos + documents.
• Backblaze — $99/yr unlimited backup of whole computer.
• Carbonite — same idea.
• Cloud + external = double-protected.
• Important files in cloud = accessible from anywhere.