Looking after devices and the data on them
The maintenance that saves people: a backup arrangement that actually restores, a sane update policy, and the proper way to erase a device you are selling or passing on.
Backups, updates and erasing a device before it leaves your hands are the unglamorous jobs that decide how bad your worst technology day turns out to be. Nobody enjoys them, and most people put them off until the laptop is stolen, the phone goes in the sink, or an old tablet is handed to a stranger with every photo and saved password still on it. Looking after the data is the part that matters, because the hardware is replaceable and the photos are not.
The order is not arbitrary. First set up a backup arrangement you have tested by restoring something, because a copy nobody has ever restored from is a hope rather than a backup. Then settle which updates go on immediately and which can wait, so security fixes are never the thing you postpone. When a device is finally leaving, wipe it properly rather than dragging files to the bin. And if you are rethinking the software as well as the hardware, free and open source alternatives are worth a look before you pay for another subscription.
Articles in this hub
- Backups that actually work: the 3-2-1 rule in real lifeWhat cloud sync does not protect you from, a simple backup plan for a normal household, and the restore test that proves the whole thing works.
- Software updates: which ones to install now and which can waitWhat is really in an update, why security patches are different from feature releases, and how to update without breaking your working setup.
- Wiping a device before you sell it, properlyThe order of operations that removes your data and your accounts, why a factory reset alone can leave a device locked or linked, and what to do for each device type.
- Open source software for people who are not developersWhat open source actually means for a normal user, where it is genuinely better, where the trade offs bite, and the programs worth trying first.
- Twenty thousand photos: a backup and sorting system that holdsA photo setup that survives a lost phone, a cancelled subscription and twenty more years, without a weekend of sorting.