Of all the information on your computer, what would you be most devastated to lose? For me, it would be years of photos documenting our kids’ lives taken with cameras and also on smartphones. In honor of today being World Backup Day, I’m urging you to take a minute to think about how you backup the devices in your home to safeguard important data, photos, and videos.
So many times we don’t think about losing the information on our computers until it is too late and your MacBook’s rainbow wheel of death spins ominously or the blue screen of death appears upon restarting your PC. At that moment you either feel panic or reassured that your system backup can easily restore all the information that could be wiped from your computer.
I’m a backup nerd because I’m paranoid about losing my data. I backup to an external hard drive and also to the cloud. My cloud system of choice? Carbonite.
Carbonite works seamlessly on both Macs and PCs and is just so easy to use. Once it’s installed, it runs automatically behind the scenes backing up any new or changed files on my machine. Automatic backup is key because let’s be honest- no one needs something else to think about and it’s nice to have a backup system that just takes care of itself.
Carbonite has many different levels of service to choose from depending on what you want to back up. Plans start at $59/year per computer for home plans. Paying $5/month that your computer’s files can be recovered at anytime is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
If you’re not sure you want to use Carbonite or switch to cloud backup, Carbonite provides a 15 day trial for home users. A 30 day trial is available for small business users (computers for multiple users plus servers). As someone who often forgets to cancel payment before trial periods end, I like how Carbonite does not require putting in a credit card number in order to try their service.
If you’re ready to give Carbonite a try, the trial will immediately start backing up your data but if you want to organize your digital life, Carbonite has these three organizational tips:
- A picture is worth a thousand words. Start by sorting through photos – delete the junkers, and create an annual “Pics to Print” folder, so you can quickly find the best shots.
- Take it “byte-by-byte.” It took a while to create the mess, so it will take some time to organize it. Tackle files on your desktop, tablet and smartphone one at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Every little bit will make a big difference!
- Create a VIP club. Make an “Important Files” folder with copies of your car title, passports and birth certificates in one place so you can quickly find them when you need them.
GIVEAWAY: Enter to win a year of cloud backup for your computer courtesy of Carbonite by using the Rafflecopter form below.
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I received a year of Carbonite backup in exchange for this post but have always been a fan of Carbonite and all opinions are my own.
I had to learn the hard way of the importance of backing up. One day our laptop just decided to die and it had years and years worth of documents and pictures! Many of them we were not able to retrieve – ugh! I’d like to think I am wee bit smarter from that experience. However, I am always on the lookout for a better way to backup.
I would hate to loose my little one’s pictures because they are so precious to us!
I read “Buying a Car? 9 Tech Savvy Features to Look For” and learned that some cars has USB power ports for charging on the go. That is so neat!
I was impatient waiting for my computer to shut down (to leave to go buy an external hard drive) and I turned the computer off by the power strip. Got the blue screen of death. Had to pay a lot to get computer fixed and some things were saved but some were lost.
I’ve been putting off backing up my computer. Therefore, this would come in handy. Thanks!
i was writing and thought nothing about it my nephew got on my computer and it crashed and got like a lot of virsus then come to find out he deleted my story i was writing i was so upset i cried
I lost a laptop, a hardware failure event, and the windows encryption kept me from being able to retrieve the data. Argh!
I lost several years’ worth of photos when my laptop contracted a virus. Still breaks my heart when I think of the pictures that are lost forever!
I hate losing photos! They are the most evocative souvenirs or mementos of times passed. Terrible to lose them.
I read “6 Tips for Surviving Air Travel with Kids” and learned that it might be a good idea to forget any screen limits for kids during a long flight or day of travel. I totally agree! Anything that keeps them entertained and relatively quiet is a sanity saver in a situation like this.
My computer “crashed” – just shut down, wouldn’t do anything. I lost everything I had on it including my current resume, family pictures and contact info!
I’d hate to lose my photos – its like losing your memory!
Read 6 Tips for Surviving Air Travel with Kids. Learned that preparing the kids in advance on what will be happening will make the flight go by smoother.
I work with a lot of large images, so my biggest ongoing problem is filling up my memory space. And then everything slows down to a snails’ pace, then crashes. 🙁
Losing family photos would be the worst.