• idlethreat (edited 10 years ago)
    +6

    Aah. Backups. One of my absolute favorite topics.

    If you folks didn't notice this time around, March 31 is World Backup Day. So, if you haven't backed up your stuff lately, you probably should plan on doing so. Remember: the best time to start backing up your stuff is right now.

    If you have a Mac, then you're most of the way there. Plug in an external drive to your system, click OK when it asks you to use it for Time Machine, wipe hands on pants. You're done. The system automatically backs everything up to the external disk.

    If you're Mac-less at this time, then there's a good number of online backup solutions out there. I've personally been using CrashPlan for 3 years now without any problems at all. There's a handful of plans you can go with from free (you backup to another computer on your network. Free forever) all the way up to the family plan (5 computers, unlimited backup space)

    My wife's a amateur photographer. There's no way in hell she will keep me around if I "accidentally" allow 25,000 of her photos vanish in a puff of hard drive dust. A large external drive running Time Machine, as well as nightly backups to CrashPlan make sure that the marriage will last just as long as the photos will. I occasionally make manual backups to a Drobo on the network, just for that extra-safe feeling, too.

    So anyway, if you haven't thought about backups until right this moment, it's a good time to do so.