• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Trading Heroes

Trading Heroes

Forex Trading Education

  • Blog
  • Shop
  • About
  • Login

How to Backup Your Trading Computer

It's easy to backup our computers. But we always forget to do it and that can have huge consequences. Learn the easy way to backup your trading computer.

Home / Trading Technology Tutorials / How to Backup Your Trading Computer

By Hugh Kimura

You never know how much you need the data on your trading computer until your hard drive crashes, or your computer gets lost or stolen.

I used to work in IT and I've seen it happen many, many times. Tons of valuable information would get lost because someone didn't take a few minutes to setup their backups.

Can you afford to lose the information on your computer? I'm not only talking about trading documents. Think about the priceless pictures, music and other personal files that you do not want to lose.

Fortunately, backing up your trading computer is easy and this tutorial will show you how to do it.

Computer backup drive

Step 1: Get an External Hard Drive

WD 8TB My Cloud EX2 Ultra Network Attached Storage - NAS - WDBVBZ0080JCH-NESN First of all, I'm not a fan of storing all of my data in the cloud. Cloud storage is good for pictures and movies, but I don't store much else there.

You should consider your backup solution carefully. Cloud backup can make backups more convenient, but they can also expose sensitive information. 

SEE ALSO: 19 Powerful Positive Affirmations for Traders

Documents or pictures can get automatically sent to cloud backup, without you realizing it. These files can be accessed by employees of these companies or by anyone in the world who can hack your password on the company's website.

So I recommend doing full backups on an external hard drive that you keep at home. 

At the time that this is being written, I'm using a Western Digital NAS (Network-Attached Storage) Drive.

This means that it's attached to my wireless router, so I don't have to plug it directly into my laptop to do backups. That's a huge benefit.

In addition, this NAS has 2 hard drives. When I set it up in RAID 1 mode, it copies my data to both hard drives.

So if one of the drives crashes, I can simply replace it with a new drive and the software in the drive will duplicate the data from the working drive to the new drive. 

The only downside of these drives is that they are quite a bit more expensive than other solutions.

But I feel that they are the best solution for backups.

You don't have to use a NAS drive however. You can simply use an external hard drive that you can buy at somewhere like Costco or Best Buy.

Once you chose your backup solution, now it's time to setup your backup software. The steps that you have to go through will depend on which operating system you're using.

Step 2: Setup Your Backup Software

Setting Up Backups on a Mac

When I switched from Windows to Mac, I was amazed at how easy it is to setup automated backups. The macOS backup software works seamlessly and runs in the background, while you're working.

SEE ALSO: Forex scalping secrets revealed (full interview)

This video will show you how to setup backups on macOS.

Setting Up Backups on Windows 10

For the longest time, I never understood why Windows didn't have a good backup system built in. I always had to download a third-party solution.

But now it does.

Windows 10 provides a good way to backup your computer. It supports both cloud and external hard drive backups.

Here's a great videos that I found, which shows you how to do backups on Windows 10.

Setting up Backups on Linux

Now I don't use Linux very much, so I've never had to back it up. I'm going to turn it over to someone who has more experience with this.

Watch this video to learn how to to it on Linux.

As with almost everything Linux related, backups are more complicated on Linux than on macOS or Windows 10.

But once you set it up, it seems pretty easy to do backups going forward.

Conclusion

That's it! Pretty simple, right?

Now there's no excuse not to do regular backups of your trading computer.

Do not wait until it's too late. In order to preserve your data, you must take a proactive approach to backups because you never know when your computer is going to crash.

Backup regularly and as often as makes sense.

Let the backup run at night so your computer is ready to use in the morning.

Now don't put it off any longer. Get started now!

See the trading gear I use, including my backup drive of choice, here.

Related Articles

How to Choose the Best Computer for Trading Forex
How to Build a Multi-Monitor Trading Computer
5 Dirty Tricks Used to Boost Copy Trading System Performance

Category: Trading Technology Tutorials Tag: Computer Backup

About Hugh Kimura

Hi, I'm Hugh. I'm an independent trader, educator and researcher. I help traders develop their trading psychology and trading strategies. Learn more about me here.

Top

 

Share This Article


First posted: January 28, 2010
Last updated: May 17, 2020

Primary Sidebar

Trading Guides

How to Figure Out Your Trader Personality Profile

The Best Trading Books Ever

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Forex Backtesting

How to Create a Precise Trading Plan (with PDF worksheet)

Footer

Company

  • Support
  • About Trading Heroes
  • Trading Courses and Education
  • T-Shirts & Trading Gear

Tutorials & Guides

  • Recommended Trading Resources
  • Free Forex Trading Course for Beginners
  • The Trading Blog
  • Best Trading Books
  • Forex Trading Strategies
  • The Trading Lifestyle Podcast

Community

  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Private Trading Community
  • Contact
Trading involves substantial risk and there is always the potential for loss. All content on this website is for educational and informational purposes only and is not trading, investment, or medical advice. You should be aware of the risks associated with trading and seek advice from an independent certified financial adviser if you have any doubts. Some links on this page might be affiliate links, where we get a small commission if you purchase through the link. It doesn't cost you anything extra and we only recommend products that we absolutely love. This site uses cookies and using this site means that you agree to the use of cookies.

 

CFTC Rules 4.41 - Hypothetical or Simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, because the trades have not actually been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs, in general, are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown. Testimonials appearing may not be representative of other clients or customers and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007–2022 TrueLiving Media LLC | Terms | Privacy | Risk