Who needs backup?

By: Daniel Shalgi-Shira

 The simple answer is: EVERYBODY.

Do you want to have a more advanced answer? Here it is:

If you are reading this post it means you are using a computer and it also means that you have at least one of the following set of files on your computer:

1. Emails – Just think, what would happen if all your emails and accounts will vanish? Just like that. Poof!
2. Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint files - Do you have any files of the Microsoft Office suite. School, work, CV, recipes, finance tables, letters, presentations and many more. What would happen if all files are no longer available to you?
3. Pictures (photos) - Family pictures, pictures from your travels, holiday pictures, pictures of your children growing up and many more. Let’s face it, hardly anyone goes for a printed picture these days; most of our pictures are being kept on our computer. What if you were to look back upon them ten or twenty years from now and find – no stored memories!
4. Video files - Today, many people also have short amazing and touching video clips of their children, grand children and so on, on their computer, I am sure it will be sad to lose it. Imagine losing the video of your son’s first birthday, or that wonderful holiday you spent by the sea.

The list above is mainly for home users. Now if you are a small business owner or a freelancer, then you have much more files to lose in the event of a crash. Despite fully knowing this, most small business owners and freelancers still don’t backup their files.

1. Interior designers, and architects - All CAD files are on your computer.  If they were to be lost, you’d lose valuable time re-constituting your ideas and plans.
2. Web designers - All your Photoshop, Freehand, Dreamweaver files and many more. You have painstakingly built up a collection over the years that you happily conjure up at the drop of a hat. What would you do if you were suddenly to realize your treasure is no longer available to you?
3. Web developers - HTML, ASP, ASPX, PHP, SQL and many more files, of your projects, and your clients. The scores of references and immediate use files that you bank upon all the time – what if they did the disappearing act?
4. Writers, reporters and more - your research, your articles, everything is on the computer What would you do if your oldest client were to ask for a copy of that article he got written and really liked – but you no longer have it! Or if your entire manuscript of the book you were writing is suddenly not there, however much you click the mouse?
5. Every business worth its name has accounting files that also reside on computers. Who spares the time and the effort to maintain ledger books these days? What if the tax authorities came calling and all you have to show them is – NOTHING!

OK, so we agree that backup is very important, and actually most of us knew it already, so why didn’t we do it?

I think that I didn’t do it, and many more don’t do it because we tend to think:

• It cannot happen to me. Yet, it does happen to real people, and you could be next.
• It is difficult
• It is expensive
• It is a real headache
• It needs a lot of time and effort

So we will hope that it will be OK, but it may not be. After all, people do get ill despite thinking they never will, and people die as well despite feeling 'Not me!' It's a gloomy scenario I am painting, I know, but it is a fact.

However, almost everybody will encounter a loss of data accident at least once in his life time. Why am I so sure of this?

• Hardware failure - The hard disk is a mechanical instrument and they tend to get broken sometimes.
• User Error - A lost of data can also be an accidentally deletion of the file you are working for the last 4 days, and suddenly it is gone because you clicked “YES” to the question “Are you sure you want to completely delete this file?”. Or if your six year old opens your document folder instead of his games by mistake and does some irretrievable damage.
• Natural disaster - Fire, lightning stroke or many other things can completely ruin your computer and peripherals. Add to this the likelihood of manmade disasters. Remember 9/11? We cannot wish the threat away.
• Theft - Yes, burglars are still around, and if they take your laptop or desktop, they probably won’t bring it back.

These incidents can be very distressful. However, they can be much less distressful if you have a complete full and updated backup. You will feel much better, trust me. How many times since you were a child have you heard that saying ‘Prevention is better than cure’?

– Please comment, and tell me what happened to you. If you have any questions, I will be glad to answer.