It’s 3 a.m. Do you know where your data is?
November 9th, 2010
The fire damage to our West office put an exclamation point on my recent concerns with data backup. In my fifteen plus years at Carpenter Realtors I’ve seen many a hard drive bite the dust. I’ve seen the fallout from stolen or misplaced computers and, now, I’ve seen the aftermath of computers that have gone up in smoke – literally. Whether you just have irreplaceable family photos, your tax files, years of business contacts or other important data on your laptop or desktop, ask yourself this question: what would I do if it was suddenly gone? How much would I be willing to pay to get it all back?
The real heartbreaker is knowing how important the files on your computer can be and how easy it is to safeguard that data. An external USB hard drive can be had for less than $50 (Here’s one from Amazon.com). I’ve seen the look of utter dismay on people’s faces when they realize all their files are gone and there’s no way to get them back. I’ve seen it and I can guarantee you that if I’d offered to give them their data back at a cost of $500 most would have jumped at my offer. For one-tenth that price you can be on your first step toward securing your data.
Buy a cheap removable USB drive – they sell them at Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. and then – wait for it – use it. It’s not rocket science. They usually come with some kind of backup software. Install it and set up an automatic schedule. Backup regularly; weekly or monthly at least.
That will protect your computer from a failure of your primary hard drive – usually the culprit in data loss. Your computer’s hard drive is the only truly moving part in a computer (not counting the cooling fans) and has a limited lifetime. It will die sooner or later and it has all your files on it – everything.
That would be a good first step but there’s one more you should take. If your computer is stolen, or fire or a tornado or some other disaster strikes you could lose your backup as well if you’re like most people and leave it attached to your computer. The smart thing to do would be to back your computer up and then keep the backup drive somewhere else. But I know the drive would just get put into a drawer somewhere and then when your data does slip loose the mortal coil then your backup will be circa 1983 and will be of limited value.
Instead, I recommend a two-pronged approach: a backup drive and an online backup service such as Carbonite backup. The odds are absolutely astronomical that: a. your hard drive will crash while b. your backup hard drive has also been lost while c. Carbonite’s servers have also managed to lose your data. Carbonite costs $55 a year for unlimited backups. So you’ll spend $50 or so on a removable hard drive and $55 on a backup service like Carbonite. Carbonite has lost data in the past, so while I do think they’re reliable I still recommend having your own backup even if you use their service. Having two points of failure (on top of your hard drive as another point of failure) makes it pretty fool-proof that you won’t lose any data no matter the circumstance.
Is your data worth $110 to you? Look at the contents of your hard drive – your photos, emails, documents – and answer that question now while you still have it in front of you. Back it up!
Posted by: 
George Christodoulou
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