Backing up your files is a crucial part not only of being a student at La Salle High School, but of being a computer user. There are two types of people in the world: those who have lost data, and those who will. Keeping regular backups of all important data will minimize the pain of data loss, and done properly and thoroughly can eliminate it entirely.

There are several ways of backing up files on your tablet. The two methods recommended by the Help Desk are Google Drive and File History (Windows 8.1 only). These are compared below. In addition to these two methods you can also use Microsoft SyncToy or copy files manually.

Strengths of Google Drive

• When setup properly, automatically synchronizes your files with your Google Drive online. Any changes are immediately uploaded to the Internet when a connection is available.
• Restoring your files to another computer is as easy as logging in to Google Drive on the new computer.

Drawbacks of Google Drive

• Requires an Internet connection to synchronize files.
• If you have large files, they will take a long time to synchronize with the web. Here at school it may be relatively fast, but at home this will be slower.
• Only the most recent version of your files is saved. If a file becomes corrupted, the corrupt version will immediately be uploaded to the Internet just like any other file.

Strengths of File History

• Setup is easier than Google Drive.
• Once setup, it will automatically backup your files to a storage device whenever it is available on a regular schedule (such as every hour).
• File History keeps old versions of your files. If a file gets corrupted or deleted, it is easy to select an older version to restore.

Drawbacks of File History

• Requires an SD card (recommended) or flash drive to save data to. You cannot use File History without one.
• If the device you're saving to becomes full, you will have to delete some of your older backups in order for new backups to occur.

To make things simple, if you have an SD card, you probably want to use File History. Otherwise, Google Drive is the best option.

See Google Drive for a guide on redirecting your documents folders to Google Drive. This is the easiest method of backing up your data and will automatically keep your documents safe online.

If you prefer to use Dropbox, you can use the guide for Google Drive to redirect your folders to your Dropbox instead.

See File History for a guide on enabling File History. This is the easiest method of backing up your data to an SD card or flash drive and will also save old versions of your files for safekeeping.

If you elect not to use Google Drive or File History, you can copy your profile folders manually to a flash drive or other external storage. This is probably faster if you only need to copy files once but if you have to do it several times it gets to the point where simply using an automated method is more efficient.

Prepare Your Destination

1. Open your flash drive or other storage media.
2. Create a folder within it, name it something descriptive, such as “Tablet Data - Aug 29”.
3. Open the folder you created.
4. Place the explorer window with your opened destination folder on the right side of your screen.
   • Tip: You can dock a window to the right side of your screen by holding the Windows key and pressing the right arrow on your keyboard.

Copy Your Profile Folders to Your Destination

1. Move the Flash Drive window to the right side of your screen.
2. Open another copy of explorer by pressing Windows Key + E.
3. In the address bar, type %userprofile% and press ENTER.
4. Once you are viewing your personal folder, move that window to the left side of your screen.
5. Hold down the CTRL key and select the following folders by clicking on them:
   • Desktop
   • My Documents
   • My Music
   • My Pictures
   • My Videos
6. Click and drag the folders over into the “Tablet Data” folder on the right. Hold down CTRL before you release the mouse to ensure the folders are copied and not moved or linked
7. Wait while the files are copied.
8. Once the copy is complete you may close the Windows and eject your destination media.

To restore your files, you only need to copy them from your backup location to their original location. If you copied your profile folders earlier, you can take these steps to restore them:

Prepare Your Destination

1. Open another copy of explorer by pressing Windows Key + E.
2. In the address bar, type %userprofile% and press ENTER.
3. Once you are viewing your personal folder, move that window to the left side of your screen.
4. Hold down the CTRL key and select the following folders by clicking on them:
   • Desktop
   • My Documents
   • My Music
   • My Pictures
   • My Videos

Copy Your Profile Folders from Your Flash Drive

1. Open your flash drive or other storage media.
2. Move this window to the right side of your screen.
   1. Tip: You can dock a window to the right side of your screen by holding the Windows key and pressing the left arrow on your keyboard.
3. Select all of your profile folders you'd like to restore.
4. Click and drag your profile folders from your flash drive on the right to your Windows profile on the left.
5. When you are prompted if you want to merge the folder, check the box saying to do this for all items, and hit OK.
6. If you are prompted about conflicting files, go ahead and overwrite them (this should be the top option).
7. When the file copy is complete, you've successfully restored your files from backup.