Reminder to back up every thing!

[jensturn]

I just wanted to post a reminder to everyone to back up every thing and do it OFTEN! Last week I had to do a scheduled reformat of my computer, and luckily since I was able to plan ahead I was able to back up every thing on to my external hard drive.

However last night my computer totally crashed on me, and I had to reformat the computer yet again. This time I lost all the freebies from this week, a kit I had won, and some pictures I had just uploaded from my camera.

Please please please remember to back up on a regular basis. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost ALL of my pics and Kits.

I will now return you to your scrapping... just thought it was important to put this reminder out there.

Jenna

[prodigal1978]

Ewww...good reminder! I haven't backed up my photos since probably February, and not my kits since late March. Yikes, will have to do that!

[KrystalW]

ouch..thanks for the reminder. I really need to do this.

[Sharon1313]

Thanks, Jen, good reminder! I need to just put this on my calendar so it comes up regularly. Otherwise I don't think of it.

[Amber Gray]

Thanks for the reminder! It is so heartbreaking when something like that happens!

[maryjos]

If you have Windows XP or one of the more advanced Vista versions, you can use Windows Backup to set up a scheduled backup. This is what I use to make sure all my essential stuff is backed up every night, and somewhat less essential stuff backed up weekly. And then I also use Carbonite, a really good online backup service. You need a good internet connection to do this, but it integrates right into windows and you can tell it what directories to backup and it will upload them to the Carbonite server as you add or make changes. There's no space limit, costs $50 a year. I currently have over 50 gig of files backed up to their server as a secondary backup to the ones I do at home. That way, I can be sure my really crucial files are getting backed up throughout the day as I make changes, I have everything else backed up in the event of a serious disaster such a fire that would destroy my regular backups.

[littlekiwi]

Great reminder - I just had to back up my laptop before it went in for urgent repairs last week and now I will definately do it more often. I just backed up on CD's - is that the best way to back up or not

[Donut]

Thanks for the reminder Jenna! Its one of those things that is always at the back of my mind, but I really don't do it properly often enough.

Jennifer, I back up on to my external hard drive and also to CD, but it's the CD backups that I am really behind on! Guess what I will be spending this evening doing?!

[Maikku]

Great reminder - I just had to back up my laptop before it went in for urgent repairs last week and now I will definately do it more often. I just backed up on CD's - is that the best way to back up or not

Thanks for the reminder. I just backed up all my kits and pictures to two external hard drives and cd's so I pretty much have 3 copies if something happens. I don't have a dvd recorder that is why I copy to cd's but I keep hearing it is not good. :confused:

[littlekiwi]

ok so maybe an external hard drive is next on the list of things to buy

[beachin]

I agree completely.

I have always backed everything up, but not regularly. Until now.

My dh bought me a new laptop in November. The day he got it, it wasn't working right. He brought it in to return it. "Don't worry, we will fix it". I brought it back in. "Don't worry, it is now fixed".
The lousy thing kept freezing, and disconnecting from the internet. Although it was a pain, it didn't worry me too much.

About 2 weeks ago I was working on los. I was saving everything in a file called "pages done". I wasn't backing up due to the fact I was lazy and I just wanted to get my book that I was doing completed. The next morning, I was up very early and decided to work on a lo before the kiddies got up. The file wasnt' there. I figured that I didn't remember transfering it to my external drive. Nope, not there either.

I did a search, nope. Not there. I downloaded a recovery program. Not there either.

So now, I start going through all my element files.........something looks odd. I can't find elements that I had used. So I started regrouping all my kits. I am missing at least a couple hundred pieces of kits. Gone.

Now, I keep my external hard drive attached to the computer. Every time I download something for scrapbooking - a copy goes right there. When I am done with a lo, a copy goes there also. I also do not keep the hard drive attached while I am working.

Hopefully things will get better. I finally convinced someone at Best Buy that something needs to be done about this, and I am bringing my laptop in again today. This time, hopefully, all they are going to do is verify that there is a problem and swap out the laptop.

Now the only thing I will have to worry about is if all my programs will work with vista.