This month, with the fires behind us, I’d like to talk a little about backing up your data.
I’ve heard from many people who had to flee their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs and maybe their pets and automobiles. If they were lucky, they had time to gather important papers, such as insurance policies, automobile pink slips, wills and trusts and other important documents. Then there are the precious family photos. All of this while worrying for their lives.
So what did I do when we decided to pack a bag, just in case?
My wife and I have separate computers. Each computer has a small outboard disc drive, to which we back up our files daily. We don’t back up all of our files, just the ones that have changed. This is called an incremental backup. By backing up only the files that change, it will be many years before the discs fill up. The discs are attached to our computers with a simple USB connector. So when we packed up, I pulled both of the backup discs off and put them in my pocket. I now had all of our important “stuff” so that if something did happen and we had to purchase a new computer, we’d have all of our data.
Is this the only way to do a backup? Not by far. There are several cloud based backup services, some are free and some charge. Some are free up to a certain number of gigabytes, and then they charge. The charges are small, typically from $5 to $10 per month.
I’ve written about backing up before, although it has been awhile. I felt that it was a good time to reiterate the importance of backing up. It’s not only natural disasters like the fires that could cause you problems. Have you read about the bad guys that hijack your files and make you pay to get them released to you? Well, there’s that one and many other bad things that could corrupt your computer. Why take a chance?
Do you back up? If you do and you have a fail safe way to be able to restore your backups if you need to, congratulations. But I’m betting that many of you don’t back up at all. I’m also betting that even if you do back up, if something bad happened you wouldn’t have a good way to get your files restored.
So in this time of computer hacks, wildfires, bad guys who are after your identities and who knows what else, why take a chance? If you don’t think that you have the skills to do this yourself, get a professional to help you. It’s like insurance. It will cost a little on the front end, but when something untoward happens, you’ll be glad you did it.
Al Loebel is a retired technology consultant with over 50 years of high tech experience. If you have a technical question for Al, email him at [email protected].
