When I was growing up, I remember large 12” x 12” photo albums sitting on the top shelf. They weighed a ton. When you took them down, you handled them with care. They were kept up high because they were in the basement and our basement had flooded one time. If they had been lower, they might have been destroyed. And a fire or other act of nature would also ruined them. Today most people have only a few albums. With the digital camera, folks can take hundreds of useless pictures just to capture the ONE picture, they might want to print. The “useless” pictures though are just as valuable, because they record a precious moment or event we might want to share later.
Are you ready for a disaster?
Have you backed up your irreplaceable pictures, your important documents, or your 6 years of emails?
If your computer “crashed” right now, will you panic or just be frustrated? 3 ways to back your items up:
1. CD or DVD burnable discs – Burning files to a disc is one option. However, if you have several Gigabytes of information, this is a long and cumbersome process.
2. External hard drive – External hard drives have dropped dramatically in price. You can purchase 1-TB for about $120 – this is enough for pictures, videos, and documents.
3. Online service – I highly recommend this no-brainer approach. Go to: www.carbonite.com and sign up for unlimited online backup for only $55 per year. Every night, the system will back up all of your daily activities. Should your computer crash, be stolen, or damaged, your files will be just a restore process away. ( I don’t benefit from this purchase.)*** Note: By default Video files are not backed up to carbonite, you will need to select those files individually.
4. And, even if none of the above occurs, think of the ease of information transfer when you buy a new machine.
CHOOSE YOUR METHOD AND — DO IT NOW!! One thing is certain, your COMPUTER WILL CRASH or NEED TO BE REPLACED. The question is when? Are you ready for it?
PLEASE NOTE: A USB Thumb Drive IS NOT A BACKUP DEVICE!!