Don’t Be A Loser … Backup Your Photos and Data

Just One Of Those Days?

Honey!?! Why won’t the computer boot up?
What’s that smell? What’s burning?
Weren’t all your pictures on that computer?
Oh, no!

Don’t be a loser … like me.  I am talking about loss, data loss.  In terms of digital photography I am talking specifically about the pictures of your life that are more than likely all stored in one place only: the hard drive of your computer. 

Life gets busy and it is easy to just collect data, take pictures and make movies, write documents and put our financial data in our checkbook program. We just collect all that stuff in one place (our PC’s) and just think its always going to be there for us forever, just like a good friend. Well, just when you least expect it your technology can turn on you.  I’ve lost important pictures and let me tell you huge gaping hole in my heart that I experienced.  I was a looser.  My first thought was, do I have my stuff backed up?  My response was “no”, then “OH, NO!”

If you experience a hard drive failure it could cost between 0 and 00 to recover the data depending on the severity of the hard drive crash, and this service is not guaranteed.  The data could be lost permanently anyway.  What dollar value do you place on your digital photo archive?

Here is a short list of things you can do to protect your valuable photos, videos and other personal data:

Buy and Keep Your Antivirus Software Up To Date

Malicious viruses can erase your hard drive.  Use a product that is updated every day automatically with the latest anti-virus definitions.

Service Your PC Regularly

As dust collects in your PC and around your hard drives, they overheat and shorten the life of the drive.  Your personal computer is a big dust filter.  Have it serviced by a professional at least once a year and keep them off of the carpeted floor, away from dust and pet dander.

I recommend getting an air filter and keep it in the room with your PC.  Your PC will not breathe in as much dust, and as an added benefit, the air will be fresher and you will breathe less dust at the same time.

Keep Your Data and Photos Backed Up

Backing up your photos and data over the web is becoming a very popular choice for data backup.  This was formerly a pretty expensive solution for the convenience, but with the lowering cost and expanding capacity of hard drives, many web based services are popping up.  Online backup is like buying an insurance policy for your digital photo archives.

Here are the advantages of backing up to the Internet: 

You can backup securely over any high speed Internet connection.

Since your data is stored on a server offsite, you are covered from events such as PC theft, fire or hard drive failure. What would happen if there is an earthquake, flood or other natural disaster in the location that your backups are stored.

The best way to regularly back up your data and keep your data backup offsite is to open a free account with Mozy.com. With MozyHome you can backup 2 Gigabytes for free, and for .95 per month (even less with an annual subscription) you can back up an unlimited amount of data from your home computer.  They have great prices for business computers as well.

Many online backup companies offer a low cost data backup only to charge you on the back side to restore your backup data.  Not so with Mozy.  They have no hidden fees!  When I asked their tech support to confirm, they told me “We don’t hold your data for ransom.”

Don’t be a loser. Take your digital photo library seriously, save early and save often, and make data backup a critical part of your digital photography processes. One day (maybe even tomorrow) you will be glad you did, or sorry you didn’t.

You might even encourage your friends to back up their data (send them a link to this article!)  The next time they experience a data loss event, you may just become one of their biggest heroes.

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