Disaster Averted: The Importance Of Backups
February 21st, 2009
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Photo by Tony Austin
Do you back up your computer files? Yeah, you know you should, but do you actually do it?
A couple of days ago, I was sitting on the couch, and my laptop was on the table to my right. I reached over and picked it up by grabbing the screen with my right hand. I’ve been doing this for four years with no problems, but this time I pinched too hard and the screen cracked.
I lost a big chunk of the display–the rightmost two inches, all the way from top to bottom. First I just thought I could live with it. Then the crack spread, and I had lost three inches on the right. That was pretty annoying.
Then the bottom started flickering. Colored horizontal lines started forming at the bottom and covered the task bar. Then they started rising, covering more and more of the display.
Not knowing when it would stop, I started copying files off my laptop as fast as I could. I couldn’t see the start button, but I managed to click it, open an Explorer window, and start zipping stuff.
It was nerve wracking, but it was also a little fun because it reminded me of an old arcade game called Noah’s Ark. As the water level rose from the bottom of the screen, you had to go find pairs of animals before they drowned. OK, it was more nerve wracking than fun.
The colored lines were soon halfway up the screen. I started FTPing stuff, hoping I could get it all out there before it was too late.
But soon enough, I had lost the whole screen. I found that if I moved the screen in either direction, the display would come back for a few seconds. I kept doing that so I could see enough to copy all the files.
My old computer was already dying anyway, so it was really time to get a new one. But what if I had lost important files? I had some backups, but Murphy’s Law says I wouldn’t have everything I needed.
Everything worked out fine, but take this as a reminder to back up your stuff. If your computer died today, would you be OK?
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:49 am
Very true. Last fall, I bought a 500GB Maxtor external hard drive. I *should* back my files up weekly, but it’s more of a “when I think of it” thing. But now that you mention it, I’ll run it tomorrow.
Ari Herzog´s last blog post..Rewrite the Rules
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I know it wasn’t funny but your description of copying files as quickly as you could before losing the display made me smile.
I am a back-up nag. I use an automated script to backup certain directories daily on one external drive and weekly on a second external drive. I keep the weekly external hard drive at work during the week in case something happens at home, like fire, when I’m not there.
Kim Woodbridge´s last blog post..(Anti) Social-Lists 2/22/09
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Just like Ari, I have an external hard drive. I also have an automatic daily backup of new files and a weekly backup of everything.
So I think I’m good.
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I have become positively paranoid about this, ever since I started working on a major project especially. I use a backup service that runs automatically every night. And I have a second hard drive that I back up to about once a week. And now that I read your post, I want to back up somewhere else… aha! A thumb drive.
Thanks for the reminder
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
So many people using high-tech solutions here! Maybe I should start doing that. I guess hard drive prices have probably come down a lot since the last time I checked…over 10 years ago.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:06 am
I use Jungle Disk backing up to Amazon’s servers. It does it automatically Monday mornings and it costs me less than a dollar a month.
Well worth the investment!
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome´s last blog post..Does procrastination arouse you?
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
@ Alex, that’s really cheap! Another high-tech solution that I should look into.
March 7th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
All my laptops and desktops have a way for me to remote-access. In case the monitor happens to die like your situation, I’ll just log back in and do the back up. And having tons of external HDs is a good thing too. All my work and projects are in SVN so I don’t really care too much for a HD crash. Also most of my photos are up on Flickr anyway. The only thing I have issues with is my media library, music that I’ve been collecting for the past 6, 7 years. To much data can be a tough situation.
Alex Le´s last blog post..Mac-imized