Turn Your Backup Drives Off

External hard drives make great backups. They're much easier to work with than DVDs, and they hold far more data. You may be tempted to leave these drives on continuously, but if you do, anything that damages your original files could also destroy the backup. For better protection, regardless of the backup program you use, keep the backup drive turned off or unplugged when you're not using it, and turn it on or plug it in only when you need to back up.