Last year, a mom at the library storytime was telling us how she had been recently robbed. Insurance would cover the stolen guitars, the rings, and various electronics, including her laptop. Problem was, insurance wouldn’t and couldn’t replace the biggest loss: the digital pictures and videos of her daughters’ first two years of life.
This mom didn’t have many printed photographs. And she didn’t have any of her digital information backed up. Gone, gone, all of it gone. “How careless,” was my first thought. Then: “Crap!” We hadn’t backed up any of our stuff either.
According to a tech writer at Newsweek, Americans and Brits are the most negligent about backing up our data to some kind of external storage. So I'm thinking you need to do a little external saving too. I mean, is anyone still using film (besides my mom)? All those digital pictures just waiting to be wiped out by a computer virus. Think of it! The birth photos, babies first solids, how you caught her first steps on digital video, today's Halloween costume!
I know some writers and I am surprised – stunned, really – at how many novels exist in one single file on an aging and mobile laptop. Just think, a life’s work, all your memories and your entire music collection could just disappear during a quick bathroom break at Starbucks.
There are some solutions, the Newsweek geek says. Sharpcast will automatically sync your documents, pics and multimedia files to the company’s servers and any other machine you choose. There’s also Windows Home Server, which backs up all the machines on your home network. And Apple has Time Machine for Macs. Ugh. What a pain. Are you going to do it?
Oh, and another surprising fact. Half the people who have lost data in the past still don’t back up their hard drives. Hmmmmm. I wonder if the library mom does.
