What’s the number one tech step should you take in 2019 to make your life easier?
Back up!
Yup, this sounds like a simple one. But, for some reason, you may think you’re immune from a hard drive crash. Or your files getting deleted by mistake. Or your external hard drive going belly up. You’re not special! Once you starting thinking like that and that your files may be in jeopardy tomorrow, you’ll get it. Yes, it pays to be paranoid.
So, how can you back up? You can choose the online way or the let-me-be-in-control-all-the-time way.
Go the online route.
For online enthusiasts, I recommend Carbonite. It’s under $100 for the whole year and you can back up whatever and how much you want. It takes some time to back up all your stuff, but then the incremental back ups with changes and additions are much faster. Do it! It’s the easiest way to back up.
More of a traditionalist? Not so trusting of the Internet?
For those who don’t trust the Internet or online thieves, well, you can do it yourself! Buy and external hard drive, plug it in, and make sure to back up nightly, weekly, monthly, whenever you’d like. But, remember, plugging it in is harder than you think. Sure, at first, you’ll be on top of it, backing up through January and maybe February. But, as your conscientiousness weakens, so will your priority of backing up and your files may not be safe any longer. Paragon is a good, free software which will back up your files to your external hard drive.
What could happen if you don’t back up your files?
Alright, so here’s the doomsday perspective to try to scare you into backing up your files. I’m a huge proponent of backing up files because we see so many new customers who haven’t listened to me walking into our NYC data recovery shop with their heads hung low on the brink of tears. These sad folks did not back up their files and now have to save their lifelong photos, memories, documents, and more. They are looking to recover files from their computers or crashed external hard drives.
Wait! Can’t files be recovered from failed hard drives?
Well, yes, but you shouldn’t wait for that to happen! And of course, you’ll be paying for the recovery end of it instead of proactively backing up your files. It’s like taking care of your teeth. I know. Weird analogy alert here. If you floss your teeth nightly and brush twice a day, you have a good chance of avoiding costly cavities and reducing your dentist budget. But, if you just let your teeth go, you could be in for a very expensive root canal. The same goes for file back ups. Take a little time to back up your files. If you lose your files due to a failed drive, yes, we in most cases can recover your files. But, in some few cases that are really bad, the files may be corrupted or unrecoverable. And yes, our costs are reasonable, but you should try first to avoid any data recovery service costs if possible.
Alright, I think I drove my point home. Your top 2019 tech resolution should be to back up!