Back It Up

Well, I guess the first thing I'd like to write about is backing up your personal data (i.e., files, pictures, videos, documents, music, links, etc...)

I don't know what it is with technology, but lately, I have seen a lot of customers come to me with problems involving the computer not starting, and they need me to get their data off of the drives before Windows can be reinstalled. Or, what they thought was backing up, they somehow missed a step or something went wrong with the back-up drive or process, and they now need me to hook up the drives and use expensive software to retrieve their data... If it is still possible.

Even though this is one of the many types of jobs that I do, it still makes me sad when someone has lost EVERYTHING!

Now, I'm going to tell you about two simple types of back-up processes that you can do in order to properly back up your data.

ON SITE:
- On Site back up is where you have another hard drive (internal or external) and you make a copy (back up) of your data from the original. Some external hard drives come with software to back up part or your entire drive automatically. Some do not come with software, and you have to back up your drive manually. But good news-- the latest versions of Windows and Mac OS X has software built in to help remind or automatically back up your data.

The only bad thing about backing up your data to another hard drive is that in the event something bad were to happen to both your computer and/or your back up drive (i.e., flood, fire, theft, etc...), there may not be any way to retrieve anything once everything has been damaged or is now missing. So...

OFF SITE:
In the event you own a laptop/netbook, or you can not afford to buy another hard drive at the moment, there are multiple online services (such as Carbonite or Mozy) that help back up your data "off site", or in another location. In the event you need to retrieve any data, and as long as it has been backed up with these back up services recently, you can retrieve it.

The only bad thing that I have found with Off Site storage is that the first time you back everything up into 'the cloud', it may take hours, days or even weeks. It just depends on how much data you have.

But it is still worth it to look into backing up your data because when it happens, you'll wish you did...