Symons Says!
Questions & Answers
Backup

Q.  "Everyone talks about backing up their computer  - NOT.  It seems that I hear more about people failing to back up than actually backing up.  Is this really that important"?

A.  People talk about it because they know its important.  They/we read about backup software.  We hear from the IT department in our company about the importance of it.  The problem is that nobody ever really makes a solid case for backing up. 

Here is the case:

1. Your computer will likely fail at some time.  There are a million gremlins out there designed to cause you as much grief as possible.  Protecting your data by a simple backup up can save you countless hours spent trying to reconstruct the last 6 years of your computer life.

2.  Your computer is just a simple electro-mechanical device designed to make life more productive and we take it for granted.  We turn it on and we use it and then we turn it off and walk away.  You have a "hard drive" in that box spinning at tremendous speed all the time it is turned on.  Anything mechanical is subject to failure.  (the failure rate is very low but it does happen).  A simple electrical surge can instantly destroy some of the circuitry on the drive rendering it unusable.   Not to mention the virus threats.

3.  Just think!  You have all the photos from last years holiday sitting on the computer that you meant to deal with "soon".  They are lost and gone forever.  They were taken so you could enjoy the memories.  Just tell your wife "oops" sorry.  Can you spell "cranky"?

4.  You have carefully inventoried the contents of your home and put it "safely" on your computer so you can keep it up to date.  "start over".

5.  That 40 page proposal you have been working on for that government contract.  Goodbye!

6.   You are on vacation / or even at home and your computer is stolen.  Now what.  Its bad enough that some creep now has access to everything on your computer (unless you used a really good password) but how and where do you start replacing all those treasures?  Do you even use a password???

I think by now you get the drift of where I am going.  The data is important or you would not have bothered in the first place.

Q.  If its so important why do more people not actually back up their stuff?

A.  Until now it has been a real hassle. 

1.  Trying to understand the software and the procedure.
2.   Figuring out what you wanted to backup and protect.
3.   Figuring out how many disks, or cds you needed to actually do the job.
4.   Finding the time to do all the above and then actually doing it.
5.   Knowing in your mind that even having done the above - what will I do to actually recover this stuff if I need it.
6.   Where do I store this stuff so it is safe and available.
7.   Suppose my system is stolen while I am in Arizona for the winter.  What then.
8.  Oh to heck with it I will just take my chances its too complicated.

Q. Can't somebody figure out a way to make this all idiot proof for the average guy.

A. Yes its finally happened.  The folks at Carbonite decided that in this day and age of online systems there is a way to make it work.  

They have developed a system that YOU can manage and run.  I mean you!  Whoever you are I am confident that YOU can do it.  Backing up is one of the most important things we should deal with on a computer but I did not bother to write about it until now because I did not have a solution to offer.  I can't say that any more.  For more detailed information about backing up and just how Carbonite software works just click www.carbonite.com  and give it a try.  Its free to try for 15 days and I know YOU can handle it.

A.  Start thinking CLOUD computing!  This is where its really at now.  It is now easy comfortable, accessible, and CHEAP.  Amazon, Google, Microsoft.  Yep they are all into it and it works.  I have been using dropbox for a while and it is slick and so easy even YOU can do it.  I am now heavy into "Google Drive" and lovin it.  Backups are all managed by the Cloud service and your data is available anytime anywhere.  This is absolutly idiot proof and NO google is not going to steal all your pictures and publish them for the world.

Give it a try.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Just do it - and do it now!
before its tooooo late

Send your questions to bill@geezeraid.com

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