It's Not IF Your Hard Drive Will Crash, But WHEN

How would you like to spend eight hours working and then lose it all because your computer crashed?

Painful isn’t it?

The first time that happened to me was in 1981. I was entering my program into a VAX-11/780 in a crowded room when the terminals just froze. If I had saved my work every 15 minutes, it wouldn’t have

How would you like to spend eight hours working and then lose it all because your computer crashed?

Painful isn’t it?

The first time that happened to me was in 1981. I was entering my program into a VAX-11/780 in a crowded room when the terminals just froze. If I had saved my work every 15 minutes, it wouldn’t have been too bad. But here it was 5 a.m. in the morning, and I was trying to complete my assignment. As a result of that I developed a habit of saving my work - often.

A few years ago, I discovered a different type of pain. A brand new hard drive failed and took with it five years worth of work. Sure I had a bit of data saved on CD-ROMs but not too much. Fortunately, I was able to recover the majority of data using specialized software. After that fiasco, I started to backup my data regularly.

Data Backup Options

DVD Burners

You can store 4.5 GIG of data on a DVD. Where I live, I can buy 100 DVDs on a spindle at a cost of $10 to $40. Since I value my data, I use the higher priced name brand discs. I also make multiple copies of data and store it off-site. Storing my data off-site protects me if there is a fire in my home.

CD Burners

These offer the same benefits as a DVD burner, except they only hold 650 or 710 MB. I no longer store data on CD-Rs.

External Hard Drive

An external hard drive lets you make a backup of a large amount of data relatively quickly. You simply connect to your USB 2.0 or Firewire port and you’re all set. Windows XP automatically recognizes the drive and you can quickly copy the files to your hard drive. If you need to move the files to another computer - you can do so easily. Or, you can safely store your hard drive in a fire-proof safe.

Flash Memory

I use a 1 Gig Jump Drive from Lexar to store documents that I’m currently working on and need to edit on several computers. It’s size doesn’t allow

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