Back Up Your Computer

I woke up Saturday morning to a sick computer. Upon calling my technician, I heard those dreaded words: “You’ve got a big problem. You’ve got to bring it in.”

Most of you can relate to that feeling of having to take your computer to the “doctor.” Dread (how serious is it going to be), losing communication (no email contact), information loss (I need that phone number), and work downtime, especially when it’s your livelihood. Even though it was a weekend, there were things that needed to be done.

What was I to do?

I fell back on Plan B, my reserve computer.

But what really came to my rescue was my backup system. I use Carbonite.com, a system which backs up all of my files anytime my computer is connected, and makes them available to me from anywhere. I had never had to use it before and was unsure whether it would really work, but it was fantastic.

I logged on using my user name and password from my backup machine and there were all the files, exactly set out as I had them on my regular machine. With one click I was able to download to my backup computer and continue working.

One of the reasons this was important to me was that I was working on a specific project. I had saved it before abandoning it the night before so it was backed up. If I had not been able to continue where I had left off with it, I would have had to re-do about 3 hours of work (or delayed the project until I got my sick computer back).

What a relief and what a lifesaver.

As surely as you have life insurance or property insurance, you need to have a backup system that backs up automatically every day. If disaster strikes, you will still have all your files, your irreplaceable photos, financial records, incomplete projects, everything is backed up.

I’m glad I had my files backed up.