A message from the people who fix your computer

7/20/2009 Randy "0b00101010" G. says:

I believe I speak for all those friends who help you with your computer problems when I say the following:

Hi there. I know we've been harping on this for a good long time now, and that you're getting tired of hearing it. Nonetheless, there's a reason why we keep saying it - and it's not to annoy you.

Why the hell aren't you making backups?

Seriously, you've got to know enough people with computer failure and data loss horror stories by this point to realize that some kind of hard drive problem or other unrecoverable error isn't a matter of if, but a matter of when. We all seem to love our notebooks these days, but constantly moving around an incredibly tiny disc that spins at around 90 revolutions per SECOND seems to result in me having to help at least one unfortunate friend every 3-6 months.

Which, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do. But every time I do, it takes me forever and a day to try and get the old files off the broken (and rapidly deteriorating!) hard drive, if it's even possible. You lose data, I lose time, and you wind up having to buy me tons of beer. If you had a recent backup, however... to hell with the old drive, we load a new one in, restore, and you're back up and running in a matter of hours, not days or weeks.

If you're worried about cost, don't be. All you really need is an external USB hard drive - you can get one big enough for all your documents for generally about $100, more if you generate tons of documents. At 500GB, that's more than enough for your completely legal music collection, your vast selection of home-made high definition movies, and your cornucopia of photos. If you need more space, by all means, spend a bit more.*

Actually performing the backup itself is dead simple these days, too - some of the drives come with software for Windows, and Mac OS X 10.5 or newer (which you have if your Mac is less than about a year and a half old, or you upgraded) comes with a feature called Time Machine which automatically backs up your files and such for you. Windows Vista has a backup utility built-in, too, but you have to run it manually. It's still better than nothing - which is what you probably have right now.

I'm not asking you to do any crazy offsite backup plan - just, please, make a backup of your important stuff. It'll make all our lives easier if something bad happens to your computer.

(and if you want to do the crazy offsite pay-by-the-month backup stuff, you're welcome to it. I might even show you how - for a beer...)

* BUYING TIPS: When you're buying a backup drive for your computer, buying a reputable brand is best - names like Seagate and Western Digital are good to look for. Also, don't be tempted by the really tiny ones - they may be more portable, but the small notebook disk drives tend to be more fragile, plus you wind up spending more for the same amount of storage as you get with the bigger ones. You shouldn't take your backup with you anyways - more chance for damage.