4 guides in this topic
Work files deserve better protection than a single laptop drive, which can fail without warning and take years of documents, photos or projects with it. External SSDs offer fast, portable storage for active projects; network storage keeps files backed up and accessible from every device in the house without relying on a subscription; cloud backup protects against fire, theft or a drive failure destroying the only copy. The right combination depends on how much you store, how often you access it, and how much you're willing to spend on peace of mind. We compare storage and backup options on real reliability and ease of use, and explain which combination actually protects your work, rather than recommending the biggest drive available.
The complete guide
A step-by-step 3-2-1 backup plan for a home office: a drive at your desk, an offsite copy with a backup service, and a restore test, using the built-in tools on Windows and Mac.
Read the guide
Three two- and four-bay NAS boxes from Synology and QNAP, with the bays, RAID options, network ports and warranties each maker lists, and what a NAS can and cannot do for your backups.
Four external SSDs for laptops, from an everyday 10Gbps drive to Thunderbolt, with the speeds, ruggedness ratings and encryption each maker lists, and the one known problem worth checking before you buy.
