"My data has never been so backed up. Sallie's friendly reminders to back up data have been a lifesaver. Her emails are like the little voice in your head that tells you all the right things to do, if only you will listen. Thanks Sallie!"
Aya De Leon
Artist/Teacher
Just about the time his hard drive crashed, one of my clients suggested that I send around a weekly backup reminder to everyone I worked with. I've been doing so ever since. The reminder has turned into an informal newsletter. The text below is taken from the first 'issue.' If you forget or postpone backing up your hard drive, you might want to sign up for these reminders even if you don't become a FileSlinger™ client.
With viruses proliferating and hard drives crashing left and right, it's more important than ever to make regular backups. The truth is, however, that most of us don't, even when we know better. Except for my Quicken data, which is automatically backed up every third use, I tend to make backups when I think of it—which might be once a month if I'm lucky. So this reminder is as much for me as for anyone else.
It's possible to back up your entire system so that you can quickly restore everything as it was—programs and all—after a serious drive failure. To do this you need drive imaging software and a second hard drive, network drive, or DVD-writer. This will cost a minimum of $300—but it could save you several days, or more, of reinstallation, as two of my clients have learned to their cost. This is the way to go if you are in a position to invest in the XHD (that stands for eXternal Hard Drive), especially if lost time=lost money.
But don't let not having an external hard drive stop you from making backups! You can back up your data on almost any kind of medium: diskette, ZIP or JAZ drive, CD, DVD, web or network drive—whatever your computer has the capacity for. Rewritable media is better for files which change often, whereas CDs are good for anything final and for archiving. But any backup at all is better than none!
Programs and operating systems can be reinstalled from their original CDs. This takes time, often many hours, but the programs will be as good as new. If you have the installation disks, you don't absolutely have to back up your software. The really critical thing to back up is your data. "Data" includes everything from your e-mail (especially if you use it for business) to your word-processing documents to your Quicken data to your contacts to music files and pictures, especially if you created them yourself. Some of them might be impossible to re-create.
If your computer crashes a lot, you might want to back up documents every time you change them. Otherwise, once a week is probably often enough. (I'm certainly not going to nag you more often than that.) You can set some programs to back up data automatically every X number of days or uses.
If you have a system but don't use it, or just want to learn more, sign up in the form at the top left of the page to get the Backup Reminder Newsletter every Friday. You can read back issues of the weekly reminder on the FileSlinger™ Backup Blog.
Call (510) 526-7244 or e-mail sallie@fileslinger.com
and start making your backups easier today!