Tip of the Week: How to Back Up Your Browser’s Bookmarks

When you have your workstation’s browser just the way you want it, you feel unstoppable. You have all of your most-frequently visited websites stashed in your browser’s bookmarks, and your latest search results can point you right where you want to go. Then your hard drive crashes, and you’re left with nothing whatsoever. What can you do to prevent this?

The issue is that as soon as your hard drive crashes, your data is erased. Gone. Forever. Unless, of course, you’ve backed up your data. Business data backup solutions are designed to help companies like yours know that in the worst-case scenario, your data can be recovered. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to the files stored on the local hard drive; right where your browser bookmarks are located.

Unless you’re prepared to deal with this issue, you’ll lose any data stored on your business’s workstations. Granted, your employees (if they’re diligently doing their job) should be saving all important work-related files to the network drive, which is easily backed up in the event of an emergency. If this is the case, your operations won’t be cut short by an unexpected hardware failure.

If you’re using a workstation connected to a virtualized server, then you have nothing to worry about. However, if you’re not, you probably just lost a ton of valuable information in the form of your browser data; history, preferences, browser add-ons, and even bookmarks, all flushed down the drain. This is all information stored on your computer’s internal hard drive, and unless you’ve taken measures to protect it, a hardware failure can wipe away all of your custom browser information in an instant.

By taking preventative measures, you can make sure you don’t have to deal with the annoying and somewhat tedious task of entering in all of your personalized information all over again. One simple way of doing this is by making an account in your browser. This way, important information, like your bookmarks, history, and so on, is all stored in your browser’s cloud database. This acts in a similar manner to a web-based email account. This cuts down on the amount of time it takes to recover after a disaster. All you need to do is install your browser of choice, and log in to your account.

All major Internet browsers also allow you to sync your bookmarks between different systems. For example, let’s look at how Google Chrome handles the syncing process.

First, log into your Google account. Open Google Chrome, click the hamburger menu (the one which looks like three horizontal lines, in the upper right-hand corner), and choose Settings.

From here, you may be prompted to log in to Chrome in addition to your Google account. If this is the case, go to Sign in to Chrome and follow the directions.

Go to Advanced sync settings, which will open a window full of choices for your syncing pleasure.

Select the information you want synced across all of your devices, then click OK.

Your Chrome settings are now saved and synced across any device you would like to use with your account, meaning that any device you use to access your account will be able to access the browser information. How does using the same bookmarks at both home and work sound to you? Granted, you might have two entirely different browsing habits between the workplace and your home life, so make sure to create two separate browser accounts.

Syncing all of your devices and accounts together is simple, but choosing the proper data backup plan that covers all bases can be a daunting task. With the help of k_Street Consulting, LLC, we can put together a comprehensive data backup plan tailor-made for your business. Give us a call at (202) 640-2737 to learn more.