Back Up Your Data
January 30, 2013 —Not long after we got married, my wife came to me and asked, "Are our wedding photos backed up?"
"Yes", I replied.
"Just so you know. At some point, I'm going to want to look at those photos
again. If they are not available for any reason, we are going to have a
problem, so you do whatever you have to do to make sure I still have my
pictures. Put them in the safe deposit box. Network them to the clouds.
Something. Just make sure I have my pictures."
I make sure she has her pictures by backing them up.
I prefer to backup my files in multiple ways and in multiple places for maximum convenience and maximum reliability. Then again, I'm super nerdy. 8^)
If the only place your toddler's pictures live is on your laptop, then those suckers are one Mountain Dew away from existing only in your memories.
Maybe I'll go into detail about backup options later on, but here are some of my recommendations.
DropBox
This program creates a folder on your computer that is synchronized to servers on the internet. The amount of data you can store is small, but it is great for backing up documents. You can synchronize with your phone too.
Western Digital My Passport Essential SE
http://amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B007FQNKRC
This is a portable hard drive that you can plug into your computer. It comes with software that you can use to backup your entire computer.
CrashPlan
You can use this program to backup to a hard drive (like the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE ) for free, or you can pay as little as $2.00 /month to backup your PC to servers on the internet. (I'd recommend the $4.00 / month plan since it lets you back up the whole computer.)