Have you protected yourself from losing information that is important to you?

It's not a big surprise to hear that so much of our daily lives are touched by or related to technology.  It's rare to see a camera that still uses film.  We use our computers and phones to take actions that just a few years ago we did over the phone, in person or by mail.  There's nothing wrong with going paperless or at least attempting to.  What happens when you lose your cell phone or your computer's hard drive crashes.  Of course these are minor in comparison to recent events with the devastating tornadoes and flooding in our area, these are also circumstances beyond your control.  Do you have your photos backed up, do you have those critical documents backed up?  I hope your answer is yes. 

Backing up data is something we often overlook because either we don't have time or just don't think that it will happen to us.  A properly thought out strategy doesn't have to be complicated or a lot of work.  The important thing is to back up and make it easy.  There's nothing worse than the feeling of trying to locate a document or photo that you can't find.  Here's a strategy that covers all of the bases and provides the best protection from any potential disaster.

 3 2 1 Strategy

What is the 3 2 1 strategy?  For maximum protection you should have 3 copies of your files, they should be on 2 different media and one should be off-site.  I know 3 copies may seem excessive, but if for some reason one of the backed up copies is corrupt or missing you have the third to rely on. 

What does 2 different media mean?  There are a variety of storage media such as CD/DVD, flash drives, external hard drives and even older formats like floppies, tapes and zip disks.  The theory behind 2 different media is that as technology progresses certain media fall out of favor or are less desirable and also some forms of storage are less stable than others.  The best option would be to setup a process that is automatic to avoid the risk of forgetting to backup.  External hard drives are great because of the abundant storage available, but they too will fail eventually just like the drive in your computer.

Why should one be off-site and how do I do this?  There are a number of reasons that keeping all of your data in one place can be risky.  Examples are natural disasters, fire and theft just to name a few.  A perfect example of this was when the home of Francis Ford Coppola was broken into in Argentina.  The thieves took camera equipment, computers and the backup hard drive.  The computers and hard drive contained family photos as well as 15 years of data and his work.  Here's someone who was doing the right thing and was backing up to an external drive, but all that was lost in the break in.  Storing data off-site can take many different forms.  Backup media can be taken to a second location or sent to a family member for safe keeping.  The data can be stored "in the cloud" using a variety of services.  My personal favorite and the one I use is Carbonite.  The reason I like Carbonite is that it is as simple as installing the software and adjusting the desired files/folders to backup if the desired presets aren't enough and the rest is automatic.  You don't have to remember to backup, you do not need to take or send backup copies anywhere and your data is available to you through your account online.  It's safe and secure because the data is encrypted before it leaves your computer. 

I hope you found this information helpful.  It is not my intention to frighten anyone, but simply provide information that will result in taking the appropriate action to protect yourself.  Please contact me if you have any questions.