Backup Schmackup : I'm Afraid Authentic Cody Eakin Jersey , Very Afraid! Computers Articles | February 21, 2005 I just got an email from my friend Miche who said,"My laptop is sick at the hospital. Hard Drive failure.Am praying data can be retrieved."Her exact words.Ohhhh : tremors of fear running up and down m...
I just got an email from my friend Miche who said,
"My laptop is sick at the hospital. Hard Drive failure. Am praying data can be retrieved."
Her exact words.
Ohhhh : tremors of fear running up and down my spine!
Why?
Because ... and I have to be honest ... I haven't *backed up* my laptop for ages!
Oh I can hear your derisive laughter, your looks of scorn ... I can feel your disbelief.
Me - of all people - admitting this. My friends call me "TechieGirl"!
Well, the best part of my friend's scary dilemma is that it's forcing me into action!
I'm dusting off the cd burner and plugging into the power, plugging it into the USB slot - now how *hard* was that? I've got a stack of blank cds gathering dust on my desk ... why not use them?
Hmm ... why not do a *big* backup on the first of each month Authentic Reilly Smith Jersey , and a *mini* backup every Monday [or Tuesday or Friday ... whatever works best for you]?
Plan it!
OK - stick with me here - open your online Diary or Appointments Database or hard-copy Diary and make an appointment *with yourself* - which part of the week could you devote say a half hour to, to do a quick backup? What about when you sit down to open the mail, or read a report, do your return phonecalls? If you work from home, why not start the backup as soon as you get out of bed so it'll be done by the time you've had your walk, eaten your breakfast, and showered.
I can hear you saying Authentic Colin Miller Jersey , "Oh it'll take too long ... I'll do it later ... tomorrow ... next week ... next month ...". And then one day I'll be getting an email or a call from you saying, "If only I'd backed up the computer ..."
Imagine losing all your documents, projects, databases, passwords, software settings, names Authentic Deryk Engelland Jersey , addresses, phone numbers, email names, website links - YIKES! I'm scaring myself again!!!!
If I lost even *one* thing in that list above, I'd be in BIG trouble - REAL BIG trouble.
What do I backup?
Good question. The most important thing NOT to backup is your software.
You do have all the original cds, don't you? And you made copies of those cds when you bought the software, right Authentic Marc-Andre Fleury Jersey , as a *backup* in case the original cd failed? Didn't you? Yeah, I thought so ... no-one bothers to do that, but it's the one thing which could save your hair from going white overnight after your computer dies.
MUST backup:
* LOGINS, ALL passwords, FTP access codes, banking details, etc. Where do you currently keep this info? Please don't tell me it's in a little book on your desk ... oh so easy to get lost Authentic James Neal Jersey , to get put in someone else's pocket, to go walk-about. You should have a password-protected spreadsheet or document, or even better - a password-protected database. I have a database which I open as soon as I create a new login, or add myself to a mailing list, or join a new news group etc - paste the info in *as* you create it, to ensure you'll *never* forget it. Sure, you sometimes get confirmation emails with this data ... but if your computer has *died* ... get the picture? You can't access the emails!
* CLIENT documents projects websites (if you're a developer) Tomas Tatar Jersey , in fact ANYTHING which could cause grief if you lost it or didn't have a copy of it. If you've printed a lot of this stuff, what would you need if you had a *fire* and lost all your paper files? Think about that. Hard. Now make a list and maybe have a backup cd for each Client or group of clients, depending on your business.
* EMAIL software folder which should include ALL your emails. You do *keep* all emails don't you? Please tell me you're not one of those people who deletes emails as soon as you read them (business ones I mean). Have you ever considered that emails are a form of *database*? I can search my Eudora software for any word or phrase and in a nanosecond I have a list of emails relating to that item (all neatly filed in their email folders ... but that's *another* article!). I *love* Eudora's features! Getting back to business, emails with historical information on projects are invaluable to see who said what and when they said it. It's a timeline, tracking resource, for a project's life.
* PHOTOS, personal Alex Tuch Jersey , professional - unless you're using them all the time, these can be kept on CDs on a regular basis. When you download from the digital camera, save to cd straight away and save space on your hard drive [note to "self" : follow own suggestion]. If you have photos related to a project or client, save them to the Client cd you created earlier, if there's space.
* FINANCIALS. All your spreadsheets, MYOB or whatever other software you use to track financials. Every document which the tax department might one day want to see ... for the past 7 years. Business plans, budgets Nate Schmidt Jersey , everything relating to your business which you'll need to continue to *be* in business.
* FAXES - do you use online faxing like I do? Where every incoming fax comes into my inbox as an email? From now on, whenever one arrives, put it into a folder called FAXES or save with your client data. Faxes are also a record of what's transpired - another form of database. Plus if you use this kind of fax service, you're saving trees. :o>
* INSURANCE. Keep quotes etc on your computer? You'll be needing these.
* DATABASES - all of them. A must. Trust me, you'll kick yourself if you need one of these you didn't bother backing up.
* COMPUTER DESKTOP. OK - what's still sitting on your desktop which hasn't be put away or filed yet? Proba
Hamster
Thema drucken
27.12.2019 10:16
Antworten
