I have frequently discussed the importance of backing up your data and only relying on yourself to do so.
I have written about backing up the important data on your hard drive, backing up your gmail, and backing up your WordPress installation.
At the end of last year, blogging platform, Journalspace, which I never heard of before this mishap, had a backup plan go awry and all of their customer data was lost.
TechCrunch reported that all of Journalspace backup data was overwritten. This was either caused by a bad backup system, a disgruntled ex-employee, or a combination of the two. All users of Journalspace have lost their blogs – the only way to retrieve any data is by using google cache. The company has, obviously, gone out of business and is selling all of their property, including domain and trademarks.
This is, of course, an extreme example but anything can happen where your data is stored. Recently, there was a fire alarm at my webhost, which shut down the servers and required an evacuation. It turned out to be a false alarm but what if it hadn’t been and I didn’t have a backup of my data.
I also had a hard drive die just two months after I started backing up my important files on a scheduled basis. I would have lost my photos, music, and other important documents.
For some reason humans tend to think bad things won’t happen and don’t plan for them. A street light isn’t installed a dangerous intersection until someone gets hurt, renter’s insurance isn’t purchased until after a theft, and a backup plan isn’t implemented until after data is lost. Hopefully my readers are more proactive and realize that even a company like google could lose their data or lock them out of their account. Better to have a plan for when things go wrong then to create a plan after something has already been lost.
Do you backup your important data? If so, how do you do so? If not, when are you going to start?
photo credit: asmith62378
My most valuable digital material is my photographs.
Edited photos are uploaded to flickr.
All of my photos, edited and the original files, are saved on two external hard drives. If one of those fails, I’ll be getting a new one ASAP to restore the redundancy.
I don’t retain any of the photos on my computer for a significant period of time.
I’ll be using your method for saving my WordPress blogs. I haven’t done it yet since I just checked it out.
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Thanks, Kim, I back-up my QuickBooks files often because it reminds me. I am running a back-up of the 8000+ of resume files right now into my external hard drive and I still have at least one older back-up saved just as a back-up to that. I store the resumes on the PC not the laptop that travels with me so they are safer that way.
I keep most of the Wausau Whitewater photos on CDS but I found that putting them on the external drive made access amazingly easier and much faster in Adobe Bridge. So there are benefits to using external drives, too.
I make a bigger deal of backing up or rather procrastinating backing up than I should. I appreciate the reminder! It is not that hard.
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I backup my hard drive and my blog. I don’t backup gmail, but I should.
I haven’t backed anything up out of fear of shooting myself in the foot since I am not in techy at all. I screwed up my website this morning just sneezing at the screen. I will try the Wor press Database Backup and see what happens (crossing my fingers!).
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Oh yeh. Backups are crucial to my peace of mind.
I have an external hard drive which automatically backs up files on my computer on every reboot. It’s this sassy little device which even lights up when its working! :-)
As for my website, I usually have a weekly backup, although I should probably make it daily.
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backups what are those?
I really should start :p all I have at the moment is wordpress database backups to my gmail and a odd backup or 2 on a adhoc basis for my documents.
Got me thinking now though…How could I backup all my emails (hotmail/aol/gmail) as well as my ‘mission critical’ files on ym computer and websites, all automatically, in a online (universal access) and offline (ext HDD) ?
Any ideas / hints prehaps?
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I back up my blog and forums myself every couple of weeks or so. The hosting company is supposed to do it daily, but just in case I do it myself. I’m not sure if I should do it more often than that or not.
We back up the hard drives on our computers but just in case I send all my photos to Kodak Picture Gallery, too. I don’t know if they are the best, but I’ve been with them for 6 years now! This is convenient because I also use it to share photos with all family members and to have prints/gifts/cards made.
Thanks for the link to the post about backing up gmail. I had never thought about doing that!
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@Mike – Thanks for visiting and commenting. I agree that the photos are very important. I actually have two external drives – one I back up daily and the other weekly. The weekly one is stored in my office during the week in case my house burns down. Most of my photos are on flickr too but I would hate to lose the originals.
Backing up WordPress is a really good idea – our hosts do it too but I tend to only trust myself.
@Julie – Maybe more programs should have reminders if that is what gets you to backup. I agree that backing up to an external drive is much easier than to a cd. I have an older SimpleDrive that is SO fast – I really like it and wish it had more space on it. It’s like anything – thinking about doing it is harder than actually doing it. :-)
@Vered – I’m glad you back up regularly. Gmail is not as important but I use it for everything and have a lot stored in it that would be devastating to lose.
@Carla – I haven’t encountered a problem with the backup plugin – and I’ve used it on a number of sites. Occasionally the scheduled aspect of it doesn’t work but that is usually an issue with the host rather than the plugin.
@Shirley – Ah – just like me :-) I have a script that runs every night and another that runs each Saturday. How often do you reboot? I don’t know if that would be often enough for me but I have started turning off my computer when I go to work.
I backup my WordPress database daily and the rest of my files weekly.
@Donace – I don’t know of a single automated solution for all three of those email programs. I believe hotmail can be backed up with Outlook. Aol – I have no idea – do you have much in it? I use a fetch script with cygwin to backup gmail daily. I’ve been meaning to write an article about it but haven’t done it. I got the inspiration from a Lifehacker article. Once it is set up, it works great.
http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/geek-to-live–back-up-gmail-with-fetchmail-235207.php
Backups are very important :-)
@Tracy – Sounds like a good plan – especially for the photos. It seems like photos are one of the most precious things on many of our computers.
Backing up gmail is only important, in my opinion, if you store everything in it. I’m not concerned about google losing the data but people have been locked out of their accounts.
Thanks for the reminder. It’s definately time to back things up. In fact, I’m going to put it on my iCal for a regular reminder :)
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@Gennaro – Great! Scheduling tasks is the best way to make sure they get done. I put everything on my calendar so I don’t have to keep it in my head – even cleaning the litter box :-)
I don’t reboot too often… perhaps I should select another option. This device can also work in ‘real time’, but I find that it uses a significant amount of resources and can make my computer a little sluggish, especially since I typically have many resource-intensive programs open at once.
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@Shirley – I have mine scheduled for 11:30pm. On most nights I’m not using the computer at that time. If I am, I’m not working on anything important.
One thing we learned in risk management is that restore testing is as important as backup. I mean, many of us are very religiously back up data on a regular basis but do we ever test a complete restore from the backup until something bad happens?
Btw, why my photo in the mybloglog widget is having a white hallow around it :lol: Only I have this and I noticed this ‘spirit’ like looks of mine on couple of other blogs as well.
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i back up SOME of my data, to a flash drive or if it’s a document, i’ll email it to myself at several email addresses so i’ll have it, they can’t all go down. i don’t back up my hard drive. i think i have my important stuff and the rest are programs that i can reinstall. my photos, i use a free online storage, CD and flickr
The hardest thing is remembering what to back up! There are so many things that hadn’t even occurred to me… Gmail, music… and even if you do manage to think of them all, backing up so much stuff, and then keeping it all updated is just such a hassle. I’ve been working on getting all of my hard drive date backed up for months now, but the back up continually crashes (meaning I have to start over) and takes so long to back up so much. Plus, the backup always slows down my computer a lot.
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@Ajith – That is a really good point – we make our make our backups but do we ever test them. Plus testing a WordPress database backup is a pain – you have to have a test site or make a new installation and import the data to make sure the backup is accurate. Do you have a system for testing backups?
@Natural – Sounds good – as long as you are backing up whatever you don’t want to lose then you’re fine.
@Wesley – I know you’ve been having problems with it. I think part of the issue is that you are trying to backup too much. You could start by organizing your files and then backing up a couple of directories. I only backup My Documents and Application Data because everything that I will need is in those two folders. I don’t even worry about licensed programs because the serial numbers are in a text file in My Documents and I can get the program back.
I do not have a test system ‘now’ since my PC crashed :lol: but I used to do that once in a couple of months. From time to time I also do a manual back up of the entire folder stucture and DBs.
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@Ajith – Sorry about the PC.
I don’t see the ‘halo’ – I’m not sure what you mean.
Dumb me :) I visited with my wife’s profile and that had a white border around it as well… It just shows the current visitor’s profile… Nevermind
@Ajith – Aaahh – at least I know I’m not going blind ;-)