The holiday season is quickly approaching and saving is on everyone's mind. While you are focusing on saving money, don't forget to also save yourself a lot of trouble-backup your computer system!!
The holidays, for many of us, involve extended time away from the office. And, for some, trips out-of-town, out-of-state, or even out-of-the-country. This gives us a much-needed break, but also gives the criminal element a chance of their own to break into our offices or homes.
Computer systems CAN be replaced, but oftentimes the information they contain CAN'T-your dossier, your almost completed dissertation, the report you've worked on for the last month, the curriculum you've spent a year developing! If you can't replace it easily, Back it Up!!
You don't have to do a time-consuming, disk-hogging, total backup. After all, you can always install your current software on any replacement system you buy. Just do a selective backup of files that you have worked on or created since your last backup.
This is also a good time to archive, or store old files and clear up that space on your hard drive. Do you really need to keep that report from 1998? It wouldn't hurt, but it doesn't have to be on your hard drive. So, copy it to an archive disk and delete it from your hard drive.
Be sure to store your backup and archive disks away from your computer; a fireproof safe is best. Backing up your system and keeping your backup disks neatly boxed next to your computer just makes it easy for a thief to take your backup disks along too!
Follow these tips on saving for the holidays and you can have a happy, safe holiday season and return to work or home with the knowledge that, even if a crook has robbed you of your computer, he hasn't robbed you of ALL your hard work!