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Back-up Blues

A friend of mine called in a panic recently. Her computer crashed and she hadn't backed up any of her data.

"My whole business is on there. I don't know what I'll do if it's all lost," she said.

As a designer I have developed several ways of backing up data over the years. First, in the 90s I used a Jazz floppy disc to store key files. This also became a way to clear the hard drive for some much needed space. But those drives couldn't hold a lot files.

Then came the ability to write CDs. I still have stacks of CDs with client files on them. CDs were wonderful and saved me a few times. Once, a client I hadn't heard from in years forgot to re-new the domain for his website. Everything was lost. He called wanting to know if I had the files and could take care of things. Fortunately, I found them on an old CD.

The writeable DVD made things even easier because they could hold a lot more information. But the computer industry changes quickly. What used to be a lot of space now isn't.

External hard drives make the entire process easy now. Simply plug in the drive and let Time Machine do its thing (on a Mac).

My friend had to send her old hard drive out to a recovery company. Fortunately, everything was salvaged. It cost her a lot money, but she has all of her data and her applications. She also now has an external drive and plugs it in once a week.

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