Saving and Backing Up Work

One of my worst experiences in grad school was the day that I opened up a research paper I'd been working on for months only to find out that the file had become corrupt. I lost around 12 pages of research writing that had been really slow going in the first place.

Years ago, I had a student bring me her laptop in pieces asking if I knew how to get files off her hard drive. She'd put it on top of her car while putting something in the backseat and then forgot about it and drove away. By the time she went to retrieve it, her laptop had been run over. She lost a ten-page research paper for my class, along with all her other class work.

The moral of these stories is likely clear: back your work up!

Save Your Work

The first step is to save your work somewhere you can easily find it. If you don't have a laptop and often use computer labs, I recommend doing your work in a cloud app, such as Office 365 or Google Docs. There are further instructions on these below.

For working on your computer, I recommend the following process:

Open a new document in Word (or the program you are using)
Immediately save the file by going to File > Save As.

"Save As" screen on Windows

"Save As" menu on Mac

3. Click "Browse" (if on a Windows computer; on a Mac, the browse window will already be open)

4. Select the folder you want to save this to.

5. Name the file something that makes sense. For example: ENGL 1190 Community Proposal

6. Click Save.

Save often so that you don't lose work if your laptop battery dies or something else goes wrong!

Quick Tips

Create a file structure for saving classwork at the beginning of each semester.
1. - For example, in your "My Documents" or OneDrive folder, create a folder labeled "Macomb" or "College" and then create a folder for each class, like "ENGL 1181".
Be consistent in your naming to help you find your files in the future.
1. - For example, use the class name followed by the assignment name, such as "ENGL 1181_Project 1 draft" or "PSYC 1010_Week 1"
  - Using an underscore after the class name can help with readability.
  - Whatever system you come up with, just be consistent to help with organization!

Backing Up Your Work

Once you have saved your file, I recommend periodically backing up your work. This is especially important with longer papers and projects. If you are working in Office 365 Online or in Google Docs, you're work is already backed up. If you are working on your computer, you will need a system for backing up your work.

Here are a few options for backing up your work:

Microsoft OneDrive

OneDrive is free for Macomb students if you login with your Macomb ID. You can use OneDrive online or download it to your computer.

Using OneDrive Online

Tutorial for using OneDrive Online

Downloading and Using OneDrive for your Computer

OneDrive can be installed on your computer. Once installed, your OneDrive folder will show up as a folder in your file system (see image below). You can create subfolders in your OneDrive just like you would in your My Documents folder.

Once a file is saved in the OneDrive folder, it will sync to OneDrive online as long as you are connected to the internet. You can open the file directly from your laptop or access it through OneDrive online from any computer.

See the following videos for directions on installing OneDrive. These are not specific to Macomb, but should get you started.

NOTE: For both of these instructions, make sure to log in with your Macomb ID! This will give you access to the paid version you have access to for free through Macomb.

I recommend choosing "Always Available" when setting up OneDrive so that it's available both online and offline on your computer.

OneDrive folder in file system on a Mac computer

Flash Drive

If you prefer a physical solution, you can get a USB flash drive and back up your work regularly on the drive. To do this, plug your USB flash drive into your computer and copy your work from your documents folder to the USB folder. (Make sure to copy; don't move the file—in order to have a backup, you want more than one copy of the file!)

Email Yourself

Email can be a good solution if you find yourself working on someone else's computer or if you don't want to set up OneDrive or another cloud option.

Once you are done with your assignment (or done for the day for longer projects), open up a new email, address it to yourself, and attach the file you are working on. Put the name of the class and the assignment in the subject line so that you can find it later. Note: this may not work with large multimedia projects, if the file is too large.

I often use this method as a "double back-up" for large projects. If I'm working on something for weeks or even months, and the idea of losing it makes me break out in a cold sweat, I'll often back-up my document in the cloud and then also email it to myself every once in awhile.

Google Drive

Working directly in Google Drive or Google Docs is usually the easiest way to ensure your work is always backed up. But if you prefer working in Word on your laptop, you can still use Google Drive as backup.

Method 1: Open Google Drive, open the folder you want to save your work in (or create a folder, if you don't have one) and then upload the file into Google Drive.

Method 2: Use Google Drive for Desktop to sync specific folders from your desktop to your Google Drive account. If you use this method, I recommend having a "school" or "Macomb" folder in your My Documents that you sync, instead of all your documents. For more information on how to use this, see this Drive for Desktop video tutorial.

Dropbox

Dropbox works similarly to OneDrive in that you can download it to your computer and save things directly in the Dropbox folder, which will sync to Dropbox online. Dropbox has a limit for free accounts, so keep this in mind with this solution.