Tip of the Week: How to Save Your Browser’s Bookmarks from Data Loss

It’s a good feeling to have your workstation’s web browser set up exactly how you like it. With all of your favorite websites bookmarked and your most-visited sites quickly appearing in a drop down menu as soon as you type in a letter or two, you’re able to efficiently navigate the Internet and quickly find exactly what you’re looking for. But what happens to your bookmarks when your hard drive crashes?

In the event of a major hard drive crash, the data on it is gone. Erased. Kaput. Obviously, this is why backing up your data is important. Now, data backup solutions for businesses are designed to backup the information stored on your company’s server units, NOT the files stored locally on a workstation. Therefore, it’s best practice to save all work-related files over the network instead of on your local hard drive.

In fact, unless you’ve taken extra precautions to ensure that every workstation has its local data backed up, then that data will be vulnerable to data loss. Now for many workers, losing the files on their workstation hard drive is inconvenient because it means the loss of several hilarious pictures downloaded from the Internet. Although, if they’ve been faithful to save work-related files to the network drive, then they should be able to get back to work as soon as their backed up data is restored--meaning that your company’s operations won’t skip a beat.

However, unless your workstation is really a terminal connected to a virtualized server, then it’s likely the case that your web browser and all of its information (like history, preferences, browser add-ons, and bookmarks), are all being saved on your computer’s internal hard drive. If this is the case, then all of your customized data associated with your web browser will be gone forever if something happened to your local hard drive.

That is, unless you’ve taken preventive measures.

One of the easiest ways to save your browser’s data is to create an account with your browser. With an account made for your browser, important information like bookmarks will be saved to the browser’s cloud database (in a similar way that web-based email accounts work). That way, all you have to do after experiencing a hard drive crash is 1) install the browser, and 2) login. Upon logging in, you will find all of your bookmarks and crucial browser data right where it should be.

All major Internet browsers give users the option to sync their bookmarks. For now, let’s show you how to sync your data using one of the Internet’s most popular web browsers, Google Chrome.

Once logged into your Google account, open Chrome. Now open the hamburger menu (the three lines in the upper right-hand corner) and choose Settings.

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

Next, Go to Advanced sync settings and select which settings you want synced, or just select Sync everything if you prefer.

Click OK and your Chrome settings will be saved and synced.

As a bonus, creating an account with your browser allows you to sync your browser data across multiple platforms. Upon syncing, you will have the same bookmarks at home, work, and every one of your devices. Now, you may have much different Internet browsing habits at work than you do at home. If this is the case, then you can just as easily create two separate browser accounts.

Syncing your software is easy to do, and having a data backup plan for both your company’s network and the data on your workstation is important. When creating a data backup plan for your business, you will want to take into account every piece of data that you depend on to do your job, including your precious browser bookmarks. To implement a comprehensive data backup plan for your business, give Directive a call at 607.433.2200.