Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Backing up

Yes, it is December already. Now that my computer is back in working order, I can get after this again. That's the thing about technology - it is a wonderful tool - when it works.

I have been taught from an early age (technology-wise) to back up my data. I semi-faithfully do that for the most part. The thing about that is the backup is also technology. I was rather fearful this past weekend when I could not access any of my data on my computer, particularly since I have a paper due at the end of this week for a grad class.

Of course, the zip drive I had my backups stored on did not contain this particular paper, but I did have some data on it that I thought I might be able to use. For some reason, the drive would not open either on my computer or the desktop at home. That got me thinking. How many different backup devices do we truly need for our technology information? I have mine in three, but one was not backed up very recently.

That has me thinking about the possibility of using a fourth method and hoping that some strange coincidence doesn't take them all down at once.

Luckily, a re-install of the operating system brought my computer back to life with all data intact and the zip drive is working. Which reminds me, I have to go back up some data now.

1 comment:

NRochelle said...

I feel for you. That is certainly cause for a sinking feeling in one's stomach. Glad you could retrieve your hard work. I know have everything in at least 2 places. Sometimes I even send a copy to by gmail account- I figure google has less of a chance of crashing than even our district's servers.