Back Up Your Data-TODAY

As happens to many of us, my computer died last week.  It was a long, drawn out process as it is a laptop and died from heat.  But, it was a great opportunity to see just how good my recovery process is.  I use a company called Backblaze to manage my off-site backups.  It is inexpensive and updates all day, every day.

I got my new computer home and spent the evening installing software as one should never try to copy software installations from one machine to another as well as downloaded the backup file.  I chose to download the entire file so that took a good part of  the night as the file is quite large (I could have downloaded it in pieces which would have been faster but I was functional enough on an older machine to just want to get it done.).   But, first thing in the morning, I had my entire old computer at my finger tips.  The best was about 3 minutes after it downloaded I had Outlook back up and running as if nothing had ever happened!  I was able to move all my files quickly  and easily and was back to work in no time.  In the past, it has taken up to three days to get everything found, copied over and settled in but not with my backup.

Now, had I not had this backup, I would have been in real trouble as my old computer can’t run more than 1 hour without overheating.  So the fact that I didn’t need to worry about getting things copied over was a real benefit.

So the question is – ARE YOU BACKING UP???  I highly recommend running a small test of your backup procedure BEFORE you need it.  Create a file that is for testing purposes and delete it.  Then restore it from the backup.  This give you the knowledge you need to handle the situation when it comes up.   Also, knowing the backup is working is HUGE.  Backblaze was a really great utility for me and I highly recommend it but there are many out there that can work. The bottom line – BACK UP YOUR FILES!