Backing up your computer should be a no-brainer.  And yes, it can be easy as 1-2-3…Actually – as easy as 3-2-1.

Follow this simple rule and you will not lose your files!  A simple strategy – 3-2-1 Backup

  • Three copies of everything
  • Your stuff should be kept in at least two different places
  • One of those places is offsite away from your computer!

Let’s run through it with an example of the photos you just took on your last vacation.  3-2-1 Backup goes like this:

3 copies:

  1. One on your computer
  2. One on an external device such as a flash drive or CD / DVD recordable media
  3. One stored offsite away from your computer in the event of some calamity that takes out your house (fire, earthquake, other natural disaster).

How should you store the copy away from your computer?

– Keep a copy at a relative’s house on a flash drive.  You can buy two flash drives and swap them in and out every month.

– Use an online data protection service.  P3C Technologies resells Carbonite Online Backup but there are others.  If all you care about is photos, you can use Walgreens, Snapfish, Flickr, or Picassa to back these up.

Make sure you backup those files.  Why?  Because disaster happens all the time.  Need more convincing?  If the hard drive in your computer fails with a mechanical failure, and you MUST have the data back that was on that drive, the price tag will run between $1,500 and $2,500 for a vendor to work on your drive in a clean room to ATTEMPT to get the data back.  There are no guarantees.  So backup your files!