Today is Data Backup Day (this should be a habit for everyone to get into on the 1st of the month) and the topic is very appropriate given the status of Hurricane Gustave right now. I am keeping all those affected by the storm in my thoughts.
External Storage
I am also hoping that many of us have learned from the recent 2008 Genea-Blogger Games how important a backup program is in order to maintain good research and data health. I discovered some new options available for external storage over at one of my favorite shopping websites - Costco. And you don't need a Costco membership in order to purchase items. I just can't believe how much lower the price of storage is compared to even 6 months ago! There are some very slim, portable external drives - and one of them holds 500GB at a price of $89.99!
Are You Capturing Everything?
As a reminder, don't forget do backup the "little things" that may not seem important now but could lead to frustration later if in fact you experienced a loss of data. Such as:
- Favorites: could you imagine having to search for all these links again?
- Email: if you use Outlook for email, make sure you use the Archive feature and export all your email as a PST file for safekeeping.
- Free Apps: if you tend to download lots of free helper applications from sites like Tucows or Download.com, either backup the initial .exe install files or make a list of the applications. This way if you do have a computer wipeout, you can reinstall all those programs.
Blog Backups
In the past month, nay past few days, several bloggers have experienced either having their blogs "blocked" by Blogger or unceremoniously deleted by Blogger with no explanation. If this were to happen to you, in the words of Karl Malden in that American Express commercial, "what will you do, what will you do?"
WordPress has a neat import feature which allows you to import all your posts and comments from Blogger as well as LiveJournal and other sites. I've created a post specifically on Backing Up Your Blog over at Facebook Bootcampt for Genea-Bloggers. Check it out and please back up your blog today. Not tomorrow, not next week, but today.
Photo: The worst blue-screen-of-death ever by Eleventh Earl of Mar on Flickr. Used via Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
1 comment:
"Favorites: could you imagine having to search for all these links again?"
Thomas, this is why I have downloaded and use Google's Toolbar on both my desktop and laptop. All my favorites are saved and I can access them no matter what computer I use. I can also access them on other people's (or work or public) computers by going to my Google Account and looking at my Bookmarks list.
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