“Now where did I put that file?” Online backup saves time and memories.

There are two types of people, those who have lost data and those who will.  Painful as it is to admit, I’m in the first category.  The specifics aren’t important to recount (and the wound is still a bit too raw), but just know my iMac hard drive crashed and I had not backed up.  While the new drive was covered under warranty sadly my irreplaceable data was not.  I’m not sure which was more painful, the pit in my stomach realizing my photos, mp3’s and other documents evaporated into thin air or the gouge from charges I was quoted from data recovery services to try and get them back.  Sure, memories are priceless, but just how priceless?

With the holiday season upon us you will undoubtedly have family celebrations in the near future. More than likely, you’ll capture the festivities, expressions (and if you’re like my family, gluttony) on your digital camera.  Then what?  Do you have years and multiple gigabytes of photos on your home computer hard drive or digital camera memory cards?  How many birthdays, milestones, and irreplaceable memories exist in limbo? 

A frighteningly low number of users actually backup their home computers.  (Are you feeling a little guilty and nervous right now?)  A small investment in backup will provide peace of mind and save time, money and frustration in the long run.  There are many ways to backup data - external hard drives and CD/DVD are a good first step, but you have to remember to backup.  Also, they can be lost in disaster - the natural or toddler type.  Online backup services upload your data automatically and store it in a secure, offsite location.  If your local copy is lost, you can recover from your online backup. Best of all, you don’t have to be a tech expert to do it.  Rather than review all options here, I figured it would be more helpful to share additional resources.

Bottom line:  some kind of backup is better than none and with so many online options there is no reason to lose your precious data!  How will you protect your memories?

Photo by BrittneyBush