It’s more than a computer….it’s your life! Never did I believe how profound that statement was until April of 2010!! Backing up computer files was something I had always put on the back burner. Sure, I knew it was something that should be done but something “always came up” to where I just never did it. Sound familiar?That all changed in April. I was happily working on writing an article, much like I am doing now, when I heard the dryer ding and got up to go fold the laundry. (yes, forever the multi-tasker!!) Upon returning to continue working on my article, this is what I found on my screen….
If any of you know about X-box 360, this is comparable to their “Red Screen of Death!” Either way, this is not a good sign!!! I couldn’t even start my computer in safe mode. After calling and working over the phone with a Microsoft representative, it was determined that I needed to take my computer to the doctor. This is NOT something I wanted to do. My computer is my soul mate (okay, not really but this is how much I LOVE my computer!) and now they were telling me I had to disconnect it and have someone else pry into its soul and determine what the problem was.
The Geek Squad determined that a virus attack had crashed my hard drive!!! Holy Moly!! I lost EVERYTHING….every photo, every document, every song……gone, vanished, cya later. You have no idea what you truly keep on your computer hard drive until it’s no longer there. All the important information in your life is on your computer. Business documents, financial records, it’s all digital now.
How could this have happened to ME! I kept my anti-virus up to date; I clean and defrag my hard drive daily. I scan all my emails for Trojans, viruses, etc… I felt violated!!!
After the tears, the anger and then acceptance of what had happened sunk in; I brought my baby back home and began the process of reinstalling my operating system. But it doesn’t stop there. I also had to reinstall every piece of software I own plus those I had purchased online and downloaded directly from the company’s website. That meant all my Microsoft Office programs, financial software, graphic software, etc. You get my point….it took me hours and hours to reinstall everything.
Now luckily, I keep an external hard drive as well. This was a life saver but the thing about external hard drives is that you have to manually do the updates. That’s fine, but again I didn’t keep on top of it so while I had much of my data saved, it wasn’t as up to date as it should have been.
This is where that “A-ha” moment came in and I knew that I needed an offsite back up program for all of my data and software.
After much research I found a company that was reputable, reliable and dedicated to keeping my information safe and secure. Oh and one last thing, I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for the service!!
That’s when I found Mozy.com. Not only did they come highly recommended by a number of my business acquaintances but they also took care of the one problem I always have with my external hard drive. I am able to schedule when my data backup is done!! Bingo!! For me that was important because I set it and forget it! Every night my data is backed up automatically.
I chose the Mozy Home version since I didn’t need all the extra bells and whistles that larger businesses do. For only $4.95 a month which equals to $59.40 a year, it is worth every penny! The hours I spent reinstalling my operating system and all my software was ridiculous!
Now should my computer show that ugly blue screen of death again…I’ll take comfort in knowing that all my data is safely stored with Mozy and it only takes a couple mouse clicks to restore everything back on my computer.
Don’t fall victim to a virus attack!! Make backing up your files a priority whether you choose Mozy or another online site….don’t waste another day!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for writing this post , i find the information that you have shared of great value to the people that i connect with and going to pass this on to my tribe. I look forward to reading more from you.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for your comment. We are so happy to help as we don’t want others to go through what we have. At least when it does happen, there is a remedy if your files have been backed up.
On a side note, here’s another suggestion for you. If you have downloaded .exe files for programs that you have…try saving them to like Google Docs or something so that they if you have a crash..you can go get the download links in cyberspace. I’d also save my keys and things like that there..just in case. Be sure the page you make is private.
Alternatively, you can email it to yourself at a Yahoo or Gmail account and save in a folder.
Deb-n-Lee
Oh yes!! haven’t we all learned from this lesson? What I would love is one of those “mirror discs” where everything is mirrored elsewhere, and I just click a button every night to update the mirror. Then, I would back up all the time!
One great thing about working online, is that most things are on someone else’s server. What about backing those up? We rely on the “other” person to do that:-)
Julieanne,
That is the beauty of Mozy.com is that you can schedule your computer to back up to their servers as many times throughout the day, week or month.
Because I am always working on the computer, I have the back up scheduled to begin at 11:00PM every night when I am usually off my computer.
I even have copied all my .exe (execute files) onto my external hard drive and onto a CD-Rom so that should a crash ever happen again, I can still download all my software I have purchased online. One can never be too careful. You just never fully realize how much you rely on your computer until it’s not functioning according to plan!!
Lee-n-Deb