For the second time in 8 days I’ve had to reformat my laptop’s hardrive. An unpleasant thought because, sorry as this may sound, my laptop and my electronic leash (read cell phone/pda) are the two things that keep me insane during my time at work and at law school. Do you have any idea how painful it is to lose data and all the settings, tweaks and neat little programs you’ve accumulated over time?
I haven’t lost a limb or the like but not being armed (no pun intended) with my laptop shuts me down. I have my schedule on there, my class notes, everything. That’s why a long time ago I decided to get on www.Connected.com and get their automated backup system for a nominal amount a month. It has saved my brown behind far too many times to mention and if I didn’t at least have all my data in a secure place right now I would be screaming ‘bloody murder’ and be pulling out my law-school induced thinning hair.
Trojans and viruses aside, laptops frequently get stolen or damaged and I can’t fathom how half my class if not most of my class is backup free. I, however, don’t know if I’m ready to lose those campaign-crushing reputation-ruining pictures from Lake Havasu quite yet. To further that effort I recently also purchased an external harddrive to backup the 60GB of music , video and pictures I had on my computer. That stuff is far too precious and especially the video and pictures, almost irreplaceable.
So why am I blabbering on and on about all of this. One simple reason: Not only will your data loss affect you immensely, it will probably affect your clients/co-workers/family and countless others if something that someone needs is predicated on your work effort. I’m almost certain that someone could sue you for malpractice for not adopting commonly accepted technology practices.
Think about being a page away from a nobel-winning dissertation only to find it going to digital hell in a handbasket.
As a technology professional, not backing up is like sitting in a tanning bed for 8hours while you smoke a pack of cigarrettes an hour and drink methanol cooled with dodgy ice from a highly suspect water/sewer system. Yes it’s that bad. And when you lose the only copy of that picture you took with Madonna/Dubya/the Pope/that hot member of the opposite sex you met last night, you’ll wish you had backed up.
My two cents.
