The recent devastating fires in southern California reminded many of us of how precious our lives and our memories are. With so many people evacuating their homes with only a car full of space to pack their lives into, I heard one common theme over and over again - we ran in to get the pictures.
It's so easy these days to make sure there's room in the car for other things - photo albums can never be replaced, but digital images can be stored, and should be backed up on a weekly basis. It's too easy not to, and the consequences can be devastating.
And it's not just about backing up your pictures. Think of your computer as a huge suitcase, and think of how many items are in that suitcase that you would be left without in case of fire or theft.
Why back-up? Here are just a few reasons:
1. Your home is destroyed by fire, flood or natural disaster.
2. Your computer hard-drive crashes (and if it hasn't yet, you can count on it).
3. You loose your negatives.
4. That PowerPoint presentation you put together just last week is nowhere to be found on your desktop, and your meeting is in 20 minutes.
Hard Drives Made Easy
There are many external hard drives on the market today that are plug-and-play easy, that can serve as your back-up. I chose the Lacie d2 Hard Drive Extreme, which has a 500 GB (gigabyte) capacity. I've also used back-up drives from other companies, including the Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for under $150 which I am also very satisfied with.
The setup couldn't be easier. Most back-up drives are USB compatible and will come with a cord that plugs directly into the external drive. Once you load the software, which is either included in the box, or mounts on your computer desktop when you first plug in your hard drive, then it's up to you how often to back-up your documents and images.
While most back-up hard drives come with their own software, I use the Mac Backup program. There are many out there though, including one by ArcSoft called TotalMedia Backup, that couldn't be easier to use. It simply asks what you'd like to back-up, and how often. Pictures, Music, Documents, Your Address Book – you can back-up your entire hard disk drive and still have room for more.
Make it Part of Your Routine
I've set up my Backup program to remind me once-per-week to back-up my hard drive. Sure as the sun will rise, at 11:30 am each Friday, my Backup reminds me to plug in my hard drive to my computer. That's all it takes, and I'm set for another week.
This is one of those things that are so easy to do, that most people put it off for another day. Watching the TV news coverage of San Diego this week, I thought there was no better time than today to remind my readers to make the move today.