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?