Hard Drive Backup
The following is by Brian Snider bksnider@gmail.com --
"Sadly, my hard drive just crashed, and of course, I don't have a backup (learn from my mistake if you're vulnerable). I've decided to use a data recovery service and I'd like to get it restored as cheaply as possible. If you have any ideas that can help me along I'd sure appreciate it." Post on an internet forum
This may not be the forum where you would necessarily read a lot about tech issues, but a reminder about the importance of backing up your computer might be in order.
We have had two supporters of Way of Life Literature write to us in recent weeks saying they had lost all their data in a computer hard drive failure and they wanted to know if they could replace the digital files they had gotten from us.
We don't mind replacing files, but we can only imagine how much time and effort and irreplaceable data was lost that could not be replaced. Think of the digital photos, letters, tax and financial information, software downloads and other important data that people store on their computers these days.
To lose it all would be a huge setback for many.
The rule about data backup is that it's not 'if' you will suffer a hard drive failure, but 'when.' Not to mention the possibility of natural disasters, fire, theft, viruses or other ways that your computer could be damage or lost.
We just read about a man who had worked for three years on the genealogy of his family, only to have it lost when his laptop was stolen. Why wasn't such important data backed up?
It's certainly not because of the cost. In 1980, a gigabyte of data storage would have cost about a million bucks. Today, a gigabyte costs a dime. Can you really afford to accumulate data and not back it up?
Seagate, which makes hard drives, cautions their users about the necessity of having a back up with these four suggestions for backing up data.
- CD/DVD
Simply copy your important files onto CDs or DVDs. This is an inexpensive method at first, but if you back up as frequently as you should, you begin to accumulate a lot of old discs with old data. Plus you have to take the time to create and burn these discs, then sort through them to find the file you might be looking for. - USB sticks
Just copy your files onto a series of USB sticks or “flash drives.” This is easier than burning CDs and DVDs, plus you can carry your backup with you. But these tiny drives don’t have the capacity for a full backup, so you’ll have to use a few of them. And they’re as easy to lose as they are to use. - Online backup
Pay a backup service, install their software, and let your computer back itself up automatically over the Internet. This is an easy “set it and forget it” backup method, and it puts your backup offsite which saves you from having to make a backup of your backup. But there are yearly fees and the backups could slow down other tasks you want to perform over your Internet connection. (Carbonite and Mozy are two of the most popular, though there are many others.) - External hard drive
Hook up an external hard drive to your computer and simply drag your files to the drive to back them up.
Seagate, Western Digital and other manufacturers make hard drives which automatically back up data, and newer Macs use an application called "Time Machine" to automatically make backups to an external drive.
I inadvertently deleted several large folders of important data when I was cleaning up my computer recently, and didn't realize it until a few days later. I was able to easily go to my Time Machine backup and retrieve those important files.
It's a very nice feeling when your drive dies, or is otherwise lost, and you simply grab your backup and re-install. A very nice feeling indeed.
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