Back up your coursework before a deadline goes wrong

Laptops get dropped, spilled on, stolen or simply stop working, and it tends to happen at the worst possible moment. Extensions for lost work are not guaranteed.

The fix is easy: keep your work in more than one place, automatically.

The simple rule

Keep at least two copies of anything that matters, and one of them not on your laptop.

Save coursework in the OneDrive or Google Drive account your university gives you
Check that the files sync — look for the tick or cloud icon
Keep a second copy somewhere else, such as a USB stick or a backup service
Email yourself the final version before you submit, as a last resort

Sync is not quite backup

If you delete a file or it gets corrupted, cloud sync can copy that mistake everywhere. A proper backup keeps older versions, so you can go back to yesterday's copy.

If your laptop dies

Don't keep switching it on and off. If the drive is failing, that can make recovery harder. Stop and get it looked at.