Have you Backed Up?

data-security-445154_640I was at work last week and I share “my” computer with a colleague, of mine, as we both work different times on it. We are updating our systems and bringing everything on to one big server, for cost efficiency. So we have regular systems updates, now.

It was during one of these system updates, that my computer decided to do the worst possible thing imaginable, crash and contract a virus. The I.T technician guy was quickly called in the hope to rescue the computer. He examined the dying computer and a diagnostic report was concluded, in order to salvage it’s life he needed to wipe away some it’s data, in order to stop the virus from spreading. He spent the whole afternoon quarantining the virus and deleting the corrupted files.

When the computer was finally handed back into my care, 6 months’ worth of work was deleted. I was fortune to back up regularly, but my colleague on the other hand, not so much. You see, she didn’t back up often as she should have, so instead of losing 6 months of work. She had lost 8 months of hard work and her side of a major project we were both working on.

There was nothing much we could do but start over again. I’m hopeful we’ll be up were we should be in about 4 months’ time. However we’ll be 4 months behind schedule.

Why am I sharing this horror story with you, so it can serve as a cautionary tale to back up your work, if you haven’t done so, or do it regularly, if you don’t.

Use Drop Box, or the cloud, or an external hard drive to back up your work and websites.

Let me leave you with this question, if you the worst happened to your computer, would your work be safe?

Until Next Time

7 Comments

  • WOW! Very Scary!

    Soooo many people just don’t give it a thought. They think their computers are going to go on and on for ever without a single hitch. But as you’ve just proved, this is rarely the case!

    I spend a lot of time telling my clients to “Back up your work” on a weekly basis!

    Well done for highlighting this vital area to your readers!
    Jennifer, the Golden Entrepreneur recently posted…Top 10 Tools of Internet MarketingMy Profile

  • Jan Kearney

    Reply Reply July 28, 2015

    Hi Tasleem. I’ve had plenty of “scary” moments with my faithful old Lappy. Yes, backed up although I should do it more regularly!
    Sorry to hear your colleague lost so much! I’m sure they won’t be making that mistake again…
    Jan Kearney recently posted…Facebook News Feed: 7 Ways To Control What You SeeMy Profile

  • Jan Kearney

    Reply Reply July 28, 2015

    Arrgghh check before hitting send! Tasleem, many apologies for spelling error in your name, can you please edit it?
    Jan Kearney recently posted…Facebook News Feed: 7 Ways To Control What You SeeMy Profile

    • tasleem khan

      Reply Reply August 19, 2015

      Thank you for your comment, don’t worry done that. Yes she regularly backs up now 🙂

  • David Wildash

    Reply Reply July 28, 2015

    Hi Tasleem,

    Scary tale for anyone who works regularly on a computer.

    ‘Have you backed up’ is a question everyone should ask themselves whenever they step away from their computer. I have an external drive and a drive for backing up that too, but I’ll admit I could be better at using them!

  • Joy Healey

    Reply Reply July 28, 2015

    Hi Tasleem

    That is indeed a horror story.

    I have about 30 years worth of work on this computer, obviously transferred from many different machines so I have backups of backups! And important client data is backed up on their machine too – sharing the responsibility.

    However, it’s important to check every so often that your backup is actually working. On one of my checks I found out the automatic backup had stopped running.

    Also, I had a paid backup solution for my hosting but that “didn’t come back” – luckily I had a manual backup on my PC and that saved the day.

    Enjoy the rest of your week, Joy
    Joy Healey recently posted…Solving the Problems of Network MarketingMy Profile

  • Tasleem, I learnt a lesson many years ago and now use a separate back up facility, too many people rely on things like dropbox to hold cpies and think they are backed up but this is also a mistake
    Mike Gardner is The Time Doctor recently posted…Create time and get stuff done!!My Profile

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