Back Up Your Data!

Today's home computers have some wonderful features. The digital age has brought together some of our favorite past times and hobbies, such as photography, videos, and music.

Not that long ago, all of these activities were very much separated.

Photos taken with a film camera had to be developed into slides or prints in order to view and share them. If you wanted to send photos to relatives or friends, you had to pay for more print copies and send them in the mail. The photos themselves were most likely stored in a photo album or a box of some kind that ends up in the basement or attic.

Video tape recordings had to be played back on a VCR so that you could view the tape on your television. The video tape cassettes were stored in some kind of container or cabinet.

To listen to music you had to turn on a radio or a stereo system. Vinyl records were the only way to purchase music at one time and you needed a turntable or record player to play them. Next came music cassette tapes which made it possible to listen to your favorites in your car.

Of course, all of this happened in the "pre-digital age". Nowadays, we take photos with our digital camera and can view them immediately. No more film to buy and process. We take videos with our digital video camera, no tape, just a memory card or a hard drive. We no longer have to go to a store to buy music. We download it from the internet. It seems like the compact disc came and went in the blink of an eye as far as music is concerned! I know that you can still purchase music CD's, but for how much longer?

Now, all of this "digital media" from our various hobbies and activities can be brought together into one location where they can be manipulated and edited into one glorious presentation. A vacation video complete with music and dialogue is quite easily done by anyone at home with the right software. Yes! The personal computer has made all of this possible. Isn't it amazing how far we have progressed even in just the last twenty years!

The digital age has also drastically changed the way we store our precious photos and files. I imagine most people rely on their home computer for storing their digital media, which makes sense. It has a much larger hard drive and memory than a camera or an MP3 (music file) player.

This is all well and good as long as your computer and hard drive are in good working order. But as we all know, machines break, and if you are prepared for it, it can be a minor inconvenience. However, if you are not prepared, it can be a huge disaster.

Being prepared in the computer world means having a backup of your photos, videos, music, and data. Without a proper backup, you are really taking a gamble on whether you will be able to enjoy your memorable moments in the future. A hard drive crash can result in a complete loss of your data in an instant. Sometimes the data can be recovered by various means and sometimes not. There is no guarantee. There are companies that will charge a hefty amount to attempt to recover your data, but again the results are not guaranteed.

So how much are photos of your family worth? You can't put a price on such things. Why risk it? External USB hard drives are coming down in price every week. As of this writing you can get a 160 gigabyte external USB drive for around $60. That will probably sound ridiculously high a year from now. Even the USB jump drives that you can carry in your pocket like a package of gum are increasing in size. Recently, the upper limit is about 15GB, but it has probably increased even as I finish this sentence. Backing up your important data has never been easier than it is right now. There is no excuse and you can't say that you haven't been warned.

Do yourself a big favor and back up your PC as soon as possible!

Larry Gustafson
Microsoft Certified Professional
http://home-pc-help.com

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