Avoid Making Yourself Sick - Backup Your Work!

Written by David Charney
Posted: March 21, 2007 (2 years, 12 months ago) | 0 comments

I think we all know we need to backup our files but the word on the street is that the majority of us just don’t do it. I am amazed when I ask a company what sort of backup system they have and they tell me, “Well, we don’t really have anything in place yet.” Yet is always a key word. Put on your “scenario” goggles and let’s look at what could happen. Over the last several years, you have built animations, created interface designs, photoshoped images, written copy, scripted applications, and edited videos. You are in the middle of a huge project with deadlines coming up quick. Now you sit down at your computer like any normal morning, shake the mouse to wake the machine up and… nothing. Are the monitors off? Oh maybe there was a power failure. You boot the machine and an error pops up. Your stomach starts to get queasy. Hard drive error? Hmmm. Reboot. Hard drive error. Panic! Your drive is dead. All your work, your portfolio, your current projects, everything is gone. Now is a great time to start panicking (or vomiting).

There are a billion reports out there talking about how much money businesses lose to hard drive failure every year. Personally those numbers mean nothing to me… It matters how much time and money I lose (or in your case… YOU lose)! And it doesn’t have to be a hard drive crash. It can be anything from a power surge, to a fire protection sprinkler system. I know of a couple of people who have had their laptop and desktop computers stolen and they lost everything.

So what can you do? Let’s group ya’ll into two groups who need backup systems… companies and individuals. Both obviously need a redundant system. I don’t have the experience to devise a solution for a larger company. Every company has a different file system/structure and if you really care about your files you will go to a professional. If you are a business owner then call a few tech people around your area or do a search online… you will find them. If you are an individual I recommend buying an external hard drive or two. Try some backup software like Cobian. Cobian, like many backup apps allows you to periodically backup all your updated files to a backup drive. Cobian is quick and easy to use and it is very free! CD-ROM backups are great but sometimes unreliable. Keep an external hard drive in your safe deposit box or somewhere away from your central location. You don’t want a fire destroying all your main and backup files. Update this drive weekly if possible. I keep all my home based files at work and on a traveling external hard drive. All my work files are backed up at work, at home, and on my external hard drive. It is up to date and if I have a problem I lose nothing. There are also an increasing amount of websites that allow you to backup your files to their servers. Gather ’round for a stupid story… in college I tried to be safe and so I had two Zip disks - one for my main files and one for my backup. Then we all went to the Chinese buffet and when I got back I realized I had set my disks on top of my car and took off. I found one disk (ruined). The other is still out there somewhere.

I am not packing this article with a lot of specific numbers or defining the best solution. All I am saying is do whatever you can before something bad happens… because it sneaks up on you and then BAM!