Bad Day At The Office

Sweetie!?! The computer is making a strange clicking sound.
What’s that smell? Is something on fire?
Weren’t all your pictures on that computer?
Oh, no!

Don’t be a loser … like me.  I am talking about loss, data loss.  In terms of digital photography I am talking specifically about the pictures of your life that are more than likely all stored in one place only: the hard drive of your computer. 

Wedding pictures, vacation pictures, birthdays, holidays; these precious moments of your life can be lost in an instant from a bolt of lightning or the spark of static electricity you might pick up from rubbing your feet across the carpet. Machines are imperfect and do fail, and by Murphy’s Law, they will fail at the worst possible time.

How much are your digital photos worth to you?  A hard drive failure could cost between 0 and 00 to recover the data depending on the severity of the hard drive crash, if in fact your data is even recoverable.

Here is a short list of things you can do to protect your valuable photos, videos and other personal data:

Buy and Keep Your Antivirus Software Up To Date

Malicious viruses can erase your hard drive.  Use a system that is updates it’s virus definitions automatically every day.

Service Your PC Regularly

As dust collects in your PC and around your hard drives, they overheat and shorten the life of the drive.  Your personal computer is a big dust filter.  Have it serviced by a professional at least once a year and keep them off of the carpeted floor, away from dust and pet dander.

I recommend getting an air filter and keep it in the room with your PC.  Your PC will not inhale as much dust and dander. As an added benefit, the air will be fresher and you will breathe easier at the same time.

Backup Your Photos and Data

The world wide web is now an incredibly popular choice for safely archiving your photos and data.  It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.  This is a great, cheap insurance policy.  Online backup is like buying an insurance policy for your digital photo archives.

Here are the advantages of backing up to the Internet: 

You can backup securely over any high speed Internet connection.

Since your data is stored on a server offsite, you are covered from events such as PC theft, fire or hard drive failure. What would happen if there is an earthquake, flood or other natural disaster in the location that your backups are stored.

The best way to regularly back up your data and keep your data backup offsite is to open a free account with Mozy.com. With MozyHome you can backup 2 Gigabytes for free, and for .95 per month (even less with an annual subscription) you can back up an unlimited amount of data from your home computer.  They have great prices for business computers as well.

Many online backup companies offer a low cost data backup only to charge you on the back side to restore your backup data.  Not so with Mozy.  They have no hidden charges!  When I asked their tech support to confirm, they told me “We don’t hold your data for ransom.”

So, don’t be a loser. You’ve invested hours and dollars in your digital photo library.  It is literally priceless.  One day (maybe even tomorrow) you will be glad you did, or sorry you didn’t.  Save early and save often, and make data backup a critical part of your digital photography processes.

You might even encourage your friends to back up their data (send them a link to this article!)  You may become one of their biggest heroes the next time they experience a data loss event.

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