Scary Reasons To Backup
Despite myself and many others explaining the need for people to backup their data, there are still many people out there who don’t get it. Instead of waiting until disaster strikes, I’d rather convince them to backup, so when their data is lost they have a way to get things back.
Here are some scary reasons why you should backup.
Theft.
You leave your home to run some errands and then come back to find your home has been broken into. Among the items that have been stolen is your computer with all your data on it. Your insurance can buy you a new computer but not the data that was on it.
Natural events.
A summer thunderstorm pops up while you are busy elsewhere in your house. Before you have time to turn off your computer, the power flickers, once, twice and finally trips the fuse panel. When the power come back you discover your computer has a funny burnt smell and will not start.
Viruses
Some recent ‘advances’ in virus technology have produced viruses that will encrypt your data. The only way to get your data unencrypted is to pay hundreds of dollars. Other viruses can render your computer slow and unusable.
Drive Failure
Even though hard drives are getting more reliable, there is still a chance they will fail, particularly in laptops where the odds of dropping the computer (and therefore the drive) is quite high A damaged drive can never be trusted again.
In all these cases, having a backup would have prevented any data loss from these events. Whether it is your vacation photos, that great novel you have been writing, or any other sort of data, it will be safe with a backup. Need some advice on making sure you have a backup system setup properly? Just let me know.
Keep in mind that while iCloud & Dropbox will save you in the event that your device dies or is lost, they cannot save you from your own stupidity. If you delete one or many files from iCloud or Dropbox, that deletion will instantly happen across all your devices, and the data is gone. The cloud is not a backup. Get & use something like Superduper, CarbonCopyCloner, or Backblaze, all of which I have used and loved.
Excellent points and the difference between file sync and backup to the cloud is a topic I’m planning for a future post.
Actually Drop Box has an undelete function. Just have to dig a bit (it’s in the web interface).
I programmed an Autoit executable for a friend (to do a simple backup) and my friend’s computer was convinced my program was a virus (!) and was deleting it without telling anyone!