An external drive and File History: a backup that runs itself

Everyone puts off backing up, because it sounds like a project. Yet Windows and Mac both have backup built in and free — the only thing missing is a drive to back up to. Plug in an ordinary external drive, turn the feature on once, and the system keeps backing itself up from then on: every hour, quietly, including older versions of files. An overwritten thesis chapter or an accidentally deleted folder of invoices can then be restored in a couple of clicks. Cloud sync doesn't fully replace this — when you delete or overwrite a file, sync happily copies that mistake everywhere too.

How to do it

1. Get an external drive with at least double the capacity of the data you want to protect, and connect it to your computer — ideally permanently, say into a dock or a port on the back of your monitor.
2. On Windows, open Control Panel → System and Security → File History and click Turn on. The system starts backing up files from your user folders (Documents, Pictures, Desktop…); the menu on the left lets you fine-tune what to skip and how long to keep versions.
3. On a Mac, go to System Settings → General → Time Machine, add the drive, and confirm. Time Machine keeps backing up automatically from then on and prunes old backups itself as space runs low.
4. Test a restore right away — a backup you've never tried restoring is just wishful thinking. On Windows: right-click a file or folder → Properties → Previous Versions. On a Mac, open Time Machine and browse versions through time.
5. Working on a laptop and don't want to carry the drive around? Leave it plugged into a dock at home — the backup catches up every time you connect. Just make that a rule, not an exception.

A typical scenario

Translator Alena discovered on a Friday that her lengthy translation was empty after syncing — the file had gotten overwritten somewhere along the way, and the cloud had dutifully copied the empty version to every device. In the past that would have meant a week of work redone. This time she opened Previous Versions, picked Thursday afternoon, and had the document back within a minute. File History had been running quietly for months, unnoticed — exactly how a backup is supposed to work.

What you get out of it

Protection against the three most common disasters: accidentally deleted, accidentally overwritten, drive died. And because the backup is automatic, it doesn't depend on your discipline — the only thing you have to watch is keeping the drive connected.

Pro tip

Protect genuinely important data (invoices, contracts, family photos) twice over: an automatic backup to a drive plus the cloud. Two different mechanisms fail in different ways — which is exactly why they complement each other so well. For where to keep documents so the rest of the family can find them too, see the tip on a digital document first-aid kit.