5 ways to store your uni work safely
Storing your university work safely is quite simply crucial these days. It isn’t just losing your data that you need to worry about these days, as cybercrime and hacking has become rife and ensuring you aren’t susceptible to such activity is of paramount importance.
Unfortunately, there can often be no way to retrieve your data if it is breached and this could leave you in quite a predicament especially during crucial periods of study. It isn’t just security you need to worry about either, as you could also have technical issues to content with such as your machine crashing or USB sticks being corrupted, making safe storage a huge consideration for any student.
With this in mind, the Almero team has highlighted 5 ways you can store your uni work safely these days and ensure that crucial documents such as your dissertation, coursework and other academic assets are as safe as they possibly can be it today’s digital climate.
Cloud File Storage
This is the go to method these days, not just by students but also the wider community, due mainly to its ease and value for money. This may surprise you but this doesn’t actually mean there is a cloud in the sky with all of your data on it, but is simply terminology for saving your files with an internet based company who use their servers and allow you to access it from a range of devices.
This isn’t 100% safe as even DropBox’s servers were breached last year but it is certainly safer than a lot of the other options out there; they are also highly likely to have reinforced their security since this attack making a repeat quite unlikely.
The most reputable and popular cloud file storage services are:
• Apple iCloud
• Google Drive
• iDrive
• SugarSync
• CertainSafe
• DropBox
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Box
• SpiderOak
External Hard Drive Storage
If you are a little dubious about cloud storage due to the aforementioned risks, then the most robust choice is most probably a good old external hard drive. These are a lot more affordable than they used to be and are also a lot less cumbersome as they have become smaller over the years as technology has advanced.
You can pick up a decent 1TB (this stands for terabyte which is around 1,024 GB, or gigabytes) external hard drive for about £40 from sites such as Currys. This will give you more than enough space to store all of your university work as well as all-important mp3’s and any TV you may have downloaded too.
Wunderlist
We have mentioned this tool before a few times over the years here at Almero Student Mansions, due to the fact that it helps students stay super organised via a well-designed app. Well as it turns out, it is also very useful when it comes to safely storing your uni work as you can save all your notes, reminders and tasks on their application and access them from any device.
Evernote
This is very similar to Wunderlist, but many students opt for Evernote as you are able clip bits and pieces from the web, create notebooks, share notes and crucially; save information such as essay notes and lecture recordings.
This may not be suitable for dissertations and essays, but if you are looking to save your university work somewhere robust and accessible, they don’t come much easier to use than Evernote. This handy app should complement the above storage facilities quite beautifully.
Good Quality USB Stick
Finally, if you wish to have your university work available at all times and at your fingertips, then a good quality USB stick is still a very viable option. You should use this as a backup to your online storage, apps and hard drive storage but these little devices are still a great way to ensure you are never left without your vital data.
What we would recommend though, is making sure you pay a bit more for a good quality USB stick as the cheap ones or even the USB’s you get free from various vendors will most probably let you down. These have a tendency to corrupt and delete your files, so don’t take a chance by being thrifty and just spend a few quid on a decent brand.
These are our suggestions when it comes to storing your uni work safely but our final suggestion is to make sure all files of critical importance are saved in a range of places. One of these could well fail at some point, so hedge your bets by saving your important documents in several places.
The more expensive tech also tends to be more reliable, so bear that in mind if investing in any storage whilst away at university.