If you're going to use a large external hard drive, for archival or simple backup purposes, here are the pros and cons of different cases:

External "Toaster"-type adapters

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The simplest way to backup an IMAP email account, like a Gmail or Aol Mail account, is to use desktop client software.

With more and more work being done "in the cloud" with web-based applications that store data on a remote server, edited through a web browser (or specialized client application), you'll want to backu

When you have multiple computers, you might want to put your files on a USB flash disk (aka a thumb drive or jump drive), and backup data to your computer's disks.

How to Backup is a free online mini-book explaining basic ideas about how to backup your network, backup technologies, and backup strategies to keep your systems online, and your data available.

If you have a laptop that you travel with, consider getting a dock for your office desk. If your laptop isn't dockable (because it's a "home" laptop computer), then, get a universal dock.

Websites are archives. A website that isn't an archive is one that displays a lot of "404 errors" - file not found.

In a typical office, several people have to read a document - the writers, the editors, a manager, the signatory to the document, and possibly some artists.

The file naming convention I use starts the name with a date: YYMMDD-file-name.ext

An archive is an organizational strategy for data.

A simple, transparent way to backup a personal computer is with an external hard drive or USB flash drive.

You don't need special software to do this - just copy the files.

The correct way to backup a database is to use a "mirror" or "replica" of the database.