When my computer crashed last week, I was keenly reminded of the importance of backing up my computer. Fortunately, I have an online back-up service through Dell (Dell DataSafe). Unfortunately, when I was backing up my files to prepare for the PC restore, there was a problem with DataSafe, so any new files that weren’t backed up already, wouldn’t back up.
To make it worse, because my files were only backed-up online I had to save what I could to my flash drive and email myself some files to my Yahoo account! I can’t tell you how many times I kicked myself for not having a back-up for my back-up! The whole experience was extremely frustrating (and time consuming) to say the least.
Please, please learn a lesson from my experience:
1. Back up regularly. I am always surprised when I talk to someone who doesn’t back up his or her files. Computers are great but not infalliable. You can’t always know when your computer is going to kaput. Don’t take the risk you will lose important files – especially important or sensitive client work! (Btw, I am very happy to report that none of my clients’ files were lost! 
)
2. Back up your back up! I used to back up my files twice. I backed up my files online and I would back up my files to cds or dvds. After a time I became lax and just backed up online. If I had continued to back up on cds (or better yet, an external hard drive) I wouldn’t have had to scramble to save the files that wouldn’t back up on DataSafe.
It probably would be a good idea to get an external hard-drive to back up your files. As a matter of fact, I’m in the market for one, so if you have any recommendations let me know!
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