All entries for Friday 04 April 2008

Got Back Up?

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7328513.stm

This is not the first time there's been a story in the news about a musician who's just lost their only copy of their latest album because their laptop/harddisk got lost/stolen. Such stories are examples of how most people don't think about backing up files on their computer, even if their livelihood depends on them. The majority of people don't bother with backups and the majority of them will get away with it. Some of them will get a demonstration that storage technology is not 100% reliable when their computer's harddisk dies, or they will have their computer stolen or lost. When this happens they'll realise just how important those files are to them.

Of course IT Services backs up files stored in the home directory of your University computing account for you, but if you've got files on a personal computer that you care about and you don't have a back up of them, go buy an external harddisk or a USB flash drive, make a backup copy and keep making backup copies as often as you feel necessary. It's not hard and if you don't you may find that one day you regret not doing so. A lot.

Oh and keep your backup somewhere other than sat next to your computer where it can be easily stolen/burnt up/lost along with the original.

Mike Willis : 04 Apr 2008 12:48 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem