I mentioned a couple weeks ago how much I enjoy being in front of my computer and doing my work on it. I always hear stories of why it is good to back up. I was really at a point where it would be actually detrimental to have my information that was on my computer wiped out. The computer was loaded with many files of personal and professional information. Outlook was also loaded, with lots of contacts in my address book. The Outlook calendar was full, and this was coordinated with my palm pilot.

Backing up on compact discs did not seem to work well with anything but my Word document files. I was doing something incorrectly with the Outlook file, because it didn’t really save Outlook. The “saved” icon on the CD just opened up and displayed what was on the hard drive.

I heard one too many stories of computer crashes.

I went out and purchased an external hard drive. This seemed too easy to be true! I would just push a button and my whole hard drive was saved.

At least that is what I believed.

I did this backing up once, and then became too busy to think about it again. I felt safe and secure that my Outlook, my Neat Receipts, and my Heart Math meditation program were backed up. I didn’t use the “super duper” external hard drive again. I just used it the one time.

I had completed some articles and I thought I would back the recent files onto a CD. As I turned on my computer I saw it go crazy; there were messages of error flashing and disappearing. Calling my computer’s tech support, I explained what was happening on my computer. The tech knew the exact testing to methodically determine the problem. The problem came up quickly; it was an issue with my hard drive.

Inside I felt upset, but I wanted to be positive. After all, most of my work was backed up on the external hard drive! It was simply a matter of switching the old hard drive with a new one.

Ugh! I began thinking of all the work placed on the computer after I did my big backup on the external hard drive. It seemed like everything had been in the computer’s brain.

This is only the beginning of my long sad story of backing up the computer. Have you thought about what you could lose with a hard drive crash?

Until next week,

Lorraine

This entry was posted by Lorraine Calhoun on May 21st, 2007 under Mid-Life with keywords .

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