Sweetie!?! The computer is making a strange clicking sound.
What’s that smell? What’s burning?
Weren’t all your digital photos on that computer?
Oh, no!
Don’t be a loser … like me. I am talking about loss, data loss. In terms of digital photography I am talking specifically about the pictures of your friends and famliy that are most likely all stored only in one place: your computer’s hard drive.
Life gets busy and it is easy to just collect data, take pictures and make movies, write documents and put our financial data in our checkbook program. We just collect all that stuff in one place (our PC’s) and just think its always going to be there for us forever, just like a good friend. Well, just when you least expect it your technology can turn on you. I’ve lost important pictures and let me tell you huge gaping hole in my heart that I experienced. I was a looser. My first thought was, do I have my stuff backed up? My response was “no”, then “OH, NO!”
How much are your digital photos worth to you? A hard drive failure could cost between $300 and $3000 to recover the data depending on the severity of the hard drive crash, if in fact your data is even recoverable.
Here is a short list of things you can do to protect your valuable photos, videos and other personal data:
Buy and Keep Your Antivirus Software Up To Date
Malicious viruses can erase your hard drive. Use a system that is updated automatically every day with the latest virus definitions.
Keep Your PC Serviced
Dust that collects in and around your hard drives will make it overheat and that will shorten the life of the drive. Your computer acts just like an electrostatic air filter. Have it serviced by a professional at least once a year and keep them off of the carpeted floor, away from dust and pet dander.
I recommend getting an air filter and keep it in the room with your PC. Your PC will not collect as much dust and, as an added benefit, you will breathe less dust at the same time.
Keep Your Data and Photos Backed Up
Photos and data backup over the Internet is becoming a very popular as a data backup choice. This was formerly a pretty expensive solution for the convenience, but with the lowering cost and expanding capacity of hard drives, many web based services are popping up. Online backup is like buying an insurance policy for your digital photo archives.
Here are the advantages of backing up to the Internet:
You can backup securely over any high speed Internet connection.
Since your data is stored on a server offsite, you are covered from events such as PC theft, fire or hard drive failure. Just think what would happen if there is a flood, earthquake or other natural disaster at the place your backups are stored.
The best way to regularly back up your data and keep your data backup offsite is to open a free account with Mozy.com. With MozyHome you can backup 2 Gigabytes for free, and for $4.95 per month (even less with an annual subscription) you can back up an unlimited amount of data from your home computer. They have great prices for business computers as well.
Many online backup companies offer a low cost data backup only to charge you on the back side to restore your backup data. Not so with Mozy. There are no additional fees! When I asked their tech support to confirm, they told me “We don’t hold your data for ransom.”
So, don’t be a loser. You’ve invested hours and dollars in your digital photo library. It is literally priceless. One day (maybe even tomorrow) you will be glad you did, or sorry you didn’t. Save early and save often, and make data backup a critical part of your digital photography processes.
You might even encourage your friends to back up their data (send them a link to this article!) The next time they experience a data loss event, you may just become one of their biggest heroes.
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