A few days ago I was reading the 24/7MoM via Blogengage and Heather was discussing her resent misfortune of a fire starting in her apartment building. She received water and smoke damage, which caused some damage to her computer. Now she's trying to see if it can be saved. Living in a digital age is great, but with so many of our memories today on a computer it can make you vulnerable to loss due to fire, viruses or hard drive failure. So today I want to remind you the importance of backing up your information, especially pictures! A lot of things can be replaced, but you can't replace the memories of your life and loved ones. But it's not just about backing up your data. If you have time scan the photos you don't have in digital form. This way if the unthinkable happens your prepared. If you don't have a scanner just go to Walmart and use their machine, or any drug store.
Now the next thing is accomplishing the task. Backup hard drive prices have really fallen in the past two years. Making it easy to store all your data. With the situation that happened to Heather however, unless you keep your backup drive in a safety deposit box it want do you any good if your house or apartment burns to the ground. I do recommend having one, just don't rely on it as your sole option. Below I've listed a few services I use that give you free storage up to a certain amount, but also have paid plans with reasonable prices. Storing your data securely off site is a must have in the digital age. So take some time this weekend to save the things that matter most. Remember its always better to be proactive, than reactive.
Dropbox 2GB Free (See previous post on uses for Dropbox)
Windows SkyDrive 25GB Free
ZumoDrive 2GB Free
IDrive 5GB Free
Alvin,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I had a personal experience with loosing data, my sister has. She lost tons of designs from her designer business. Now we backup or WordPress blogs and our data.
I am amazed at how much back up you get for dthe free 2GB.
Hi Sheila. All of these are good. I like the Skydrive because of the amount of storage space. I'm also a big fan of Dropbox and ZumoDrive because of the mobile access. IDrive does automatic backs so it is another great option. Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteI've had this happen to me with our pictures when a computer crashed and the tech doing the recovery wiped out all of our pictures. It's a sickening feeling.
ReplyDeleteI back up to DVD periodically, but it's starting to take a lot of DVDs to handle all of my music and pictures. I've never used an online back up storage company before, but they seem ideal for the purpose.
Which one of these services do you use, Alvin?
Hey Brad thanks for stopping by. I use all of them. Dropbox and Zumo Drive for the mobile/computer access. I use iDrive because I started using it in the beginning so I have 12GB free from them (auto backup), and you can't pass up the 25GB free from Skydrive. I don't you can every have to much storage.
ReplyDelete