Issue 43.09
With all due apologies to the old Neil Sedaka song, the hard thing is not backing up the important files on your computer, but recovering from a computer or hard drive crash in which you have lost legal or financial files, family pictures, genealogy or other files that are difficult or impossible to replace. With new technologies and some creative ideas, there is no reason why you should not have a backup (at least one) of everything that matters.
The first thing to consider is your photos. In the past, they were stored in a shoebox under the bed or in albums. Now photos are electronic. Some may have been printed, but the larger percentage are usually stored on your hard drive after having been transferred from a digital camera or cell phone. In addition to the general backup ideas below, I recommend that you send copies (either by email or by copying them and mailing them) to family members to keep. You can offer to keep copies of their pictures as well. This does a couple of positive things. You are sharing your memories with those you care about and you automatically have an off-site backup of those pictures.
Another type of off-site backup is available through the internet. Programs like Kodak’s Easy Share provide on-line storage for your photos. Additionally, all your files can be backed up online through programs like Carbonite and Mozy. They are available at http://www.carbonite.com and https://mozy.com/.
Additionally, you can make backups of all your important files by writing them to flash drives, writable CDs and DVDs and external hard drives. Many external hard drives even come with automatic software to create backups quickly and easily. If they don’t have backup software, you can easily drag and drop your files to copy them from your hard drive to the destination drive. It’s a little more cumbersome, but worth the time.
One quick note about a common problem in backing up files: Email, address books and a few other types of files are often not in the documents folders (depending on which email program or version you are using). They can even be in hidden areas of your hard drive which are not normally backed up by on-line or automatic backup programs. You have to make special efforts to back up these types of files if they are hidden, and you may need to consult a specialist if you can’t find them.
In any case, take the time today to create a backup strategy and get started. You might be glad you did tomorrow. Remember, stay safe and happy computing – and always have a backup of anything important.
Shaun McCausland has been in the computer industry for 27 years (locally with Musicomp & Bits ‘N’ Bytes) and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions, you can reach him at 668-7118.