Well,
Last night the inevitable happened…..hard drive crash. I have been using this laptop for about 3 months, and wa’ la’! Hard Drive decided to take a dive…. (Hitachi, on Lenovo T series) I have been using IBM notebooks for over 10 years, and I would have to admit, this is first time I have ever had an issue. The good news….All of our mission critical data was stored in Cynergy Web Based CRM Software. The bad news: All of my email is gone, favorites gone, files gone. However, only lost 3 months of data. And yeah I kept meaning to do the backup, (we have the software) (but who has the time?) Now, I have plenty, waiting on the new drive, and using a temporary big box while waiting. (Yesterday I downloaded 43,000 emails from the server, twice) I only share all of this with you because it’s good therapy, and most of us have experienced it, thus have something in common right off! (plus, the wife (who is not computer savvy) said, “aren’t you supposed to back up your stuff?” (I loved that one!)
With the rapid increase in the “digital lifestyle” we find more and more of our personal possessions on our computers such as Pictures, home movies, music, school work, financial information, and more. With this greater digitization of our life style comes the greater possibility of a catastrophic loss. Sometimes it may be the loss of just a few documents from school or work. But in the worst case it could be an entire hard drive containing gigabytes worth of pictures, movies, school work, and important financial information. We are all only one computer virus, hardware failure, or user error away from losing that important digital information. TA DA!!! Like me!
Using a web based CRM Software can certainly alleviate a lot of these headaches, but you still need to back up the content that is also important to you.
Although this may seem rather bleak, there is no reason to go back to keeping hard copies of all of our information. There are a multitude of tools available today to help you keep your data from being lost. The ITS Help Desk highly recommends a proactive approach to computing – scanning for and preventing viruses, spyware, adware, and malware; keeping your system up-to-date with the latest operation system patches; and keeping current backups of your data readily available and easily accessible.
The instructions below are intended to provide various methods available to you for backing up your personal data and other pertinent information.
Data Backup Options
Windows CD Writing Wizard – This option is built in to the Windows operating system. To back up your data using this option, your computer will need to have a CD-RW drive or “CD burner”. You will also need several blank CDs. (like a million)
Backup Utility for Windows – This option also comes built in to the Windows operating system. The utility creates a single backup file of all of your data, which you can store on your hard drive, a USB Key, an external hard drive, or burn to a CD or DVD. You can also use the same utility to restore your data from the backup file, should your data become corrupted or lost.
Knoppix Boot CD – Knoppix is a Linux boot CD created by Klaus Knopper. Don’t let the word “Linux” scare you off, however. Knoppix can be used on most Windows computers and is best suited for instances where your Windows operating system has been corrupted and you are unable to boot into your desktop workspace.
Back up Your iTunes Music Library – If you have a large collection of music that you use with an iPod, then you probably store your music in iTunes. Use these instructions to create a back up of your iTunes music library. After creating an initial backup, Apple also provides instructions for making incremental or periodic backups of your iTunes library.
Third Party Backup Software – There are several third party software programs available that help you back up the data on your computer. Visit PC Magazine’s web site to read reviews of third party backup software. Our favorite is by: logmein and from now on, I may just actually use it!!!
