Pages

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Backup Files

I take a lot of pictures of my cute kiddos, but rarely get them developed. I just download them from my camera to my computer, where they sit until I need them. They are easy to share online. Whoever invented digital cameras is a genius. The problem starts when you don't have some type of backup of your digital pictures (or any other important file on your computer). Things accidentally get erased sometimes, digital memory can get messed up, or the biggest problem- computer crash. I learned my lesson the hard way. When my Toddler was 1, our computer hard-drive crashed, taking with it almost all the pictures I had of his first year, including holidays, birthday, 1st steps, all the important things. I was devastated! Luckily we were able to take it to a data recovery place and get all our files back (though we had to pay a small fortune), but now I know better. Periodically I save all my pictures and important files to CDs. Now if something happens to the computer I will know my pics are safe and sound. What also works is if you have an external removable hard-drive, you can save copies of your files to that. It works for me!

Check out Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for more WFMW tips.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That really is a very sensible idea. Imagine if you had never got those precious moments back....
Thanks for that!

Lindsey said...

I'm the way that you are, except I back everything up to an external hard drive. And after 2 years of this working well for me, wouldn't you know that the external hard drive crashed. Now I have to go through that expensive data recovery process to get all my pics from the past 5 years! Sigh . . . regardless of what you do, back up to CDs too!

Claire said...

Oh dear! my sister certainly learnt her lesson when her digital camera was stolen, along with all my nephews 2nd birthday photos!
So download them and make a couple of copies.

Claire

Barb said...

Mike lost a lot of pictures he had stored on his pc, then lost them. Now he puts then on a DVD. I need to learn how to use my cd burner so I can do the same.

Susanne said...

Thanks for the reminder!! I've been meaning to do this but my "mommy-brain" forgot.

Crazy Working Mom said...

Yeah, it's always a good idea to keep EVERYTHING backed up that is of any importance, really. Ya never know.

I usually have mine printed at wal-mart, I just get a cd made with the pics. It's cool 'cause it has an index print that I keep with the cd that shows what's on the cd. : )

Thanks for sharing the tip!

Sandra said...

I've learnt the hard way to back everything up. It's not the first time my computer has gone beserk and I loose all my photos and important things.