Back Up Your Data NOW
I mean like now. As in, call your tech guy, or get out a DVD-R, or whatever you do, and back up your files.
Fortunately, I backed my business finances (quickbooks file) off of Nancy’s laptop where she keeps them the DAY before we went into the hospital (after the last time we modified them). The DAY we got back from the hospital, the hard drive fried. No warning, no decline in performance, just one moment it decided to not boot and made a bunch of weird noises. We lost everything except that file. E-mail, personal finance records from the month of July (fortunately, we have stuff from halfway through June still) all gone. I’m fairly certain I lost a few apps that I hadn’t put anywhere else.
I think it was a warning shot for my friends and family, back your stuff up, at least your important stuff, TODAY.
fyi, just saw today a western digital 160 GB external usb hd at best buy for $80, and bought one. seems like a good deal to me…
Ouch - ask me about our automated remote backup service called “Secure Mirror”.
It’s not a matter of if your hard drive will fail, but when. Everyone’s personal data warehouse is a ticking time bomb waiting to go to hard drive heaven (or the shooting range if you are Russ Graves).
Isn’t this the 2nd time you’ve had HD trouble with that Mac?
Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but how do I do this?
Erik - That is a pretty good deal. I like firewire better than USB though… faster
Josh - feel free and tell us. Want to put some CramerIT ad space on my blog ?? ;) If you want to post details, go right ahead, I think it would be a good idea for a lot of people.
Pat - ya, ya, ya…
Holly - There are a hundred ways of doing it. My suggestion: do you have a CD burner or a DVD burner? What I would do is burn a CD or DVD with files that you consider to be important (ie, if you’re computer crashed, which files would you really really miss?)
wow…i’m sorry. this is the third story of mac hd failure i’ve heard this week. i was just hoping for another blog about elena.
Wow…I guess it’s time for me to buy that external hard drive then. I had a computer die on me at work on a Saturday with non IT guys around and let’s just say it didn’t make for an easy Saturday.
um… yeah… i agree with Heather, when can we get more Elena fix?
Matt, which computer exactly got fried? Your desktop? The powerbook? Which one is “Nancy’s”?
Also, Sam’s Club has decently priced externals Sarah and I were looking at a few weeks ago. Looks like we might be picking one up soon…
I backup the only data that would REALLY hurt if it were to be lost… my photoalbum… and my family tree data.. it took me soo long to research and enter all of that into the computer…
oh, thanks for this advice…i backed up last week…and alas, i can’t turn my computer on now. phew!
I just watched the Steve Jobs keynote from WWDC. He gave an impressive overview of OS X Leopard. Time machine is the automated backup app that is part of Leopard. All I can say is WOW!!! check it out. That is about as easy and fun way of backing up your computer I have ever seen. And yes, I said fun.