When was the last time you backed up your data?

I'm half-tempted to leave this post at just that title, hoping that the question itself will spur you into action. But if it takes more than one question (which you might or might not know the answer to) to motivate you, let me add a few more questions...

What projects have you been working on lately? Whether it's freelance work for a client or some plans you've scanned for how you eventually want the backyard to look, chances are there's some pretty original work currently occupying your hard drive. I don't want to sound like a mafioso, but it would truly be a shame if something happened to that data.

Do you have any digital music or videos? Because a crash can wipe those out, too. And while you can re-download previously purchased items from iTunes, it would take quite a while.

How many times have you unloaded your digital camera onto your hard drive? Unlike music or TV episodes that can be re-downloaded, photos that have been deleted off of your camera can't be re-taken. Those memories would be just plain wiped out.

Now that I've hopefully got you a little bit nervous, I'd like to reassure you that data backup is pretty easy. All you really need is an external hard drive and a connecting cable. Most hard drive manufacturers include automatic backup software with the drives, so it's just a matter of turning on the external HD and connecting it to your desktop machine.

And then it's a matter of waiting... sometimes, quite a while. Rather than sit and tap my toes in front of the screen, I back up my data overnight once a month. My external HD software has an option that boils down to "just update everything that's changed since last time." For my monthly updates, that doesn't take too long. But if you can't come up with an answer to the blog post title, your external HD might need all night.

So, let me know in the comments: when was the last time you backed up your data? And what would it take for you to do it on a regular basis?

Comments

[Carla]

I definitely have to learn how to back up my website, blog, etc. I would do it if I knew how; I think about it, then it slips my mind. Thanks for the reminder.

[Catherine Cantieri]

My pleasure, Carla! (And my apologies for taking so long to respond.)

If anyone out there is wondering how to remember to back up their data every week/month/quarter, stay tuned to the blog... especially around April 2.