Posted under Business
Perhaps the headline should be “Why You Should Worry!” This is a quick note about backing-up your work. If you’re already an avid backer-upper, then you can skip this entry. But if not, please read on!
A large percentage of computer users (personal and professional) do not back-up. I was in that large majority when I first began my professional career as a designer. Getting an additional hard drive meant simply increasing my storage space for extras, not back-ups. In fact it never used to be an easy task to back-up. You had to be a super geek to even know how to properly back-up your files. Because of my “RAM needs” and large files, I would use tricks like allocating lots of RAM memory to Photoshop to crunch numbers, or use the extra hard drive to parse my work. And, even with all the tricks I used, my computer would often crash. Sometimes I could restart with no problem, but often times I would lose everything. There were many sleepless nights reinstalling system software and actually recreating work that I’d lost.
But, computer power has come a long way over the years and there are now lots of programs available for backing-up not only your work, but also your entire operating system. Hard drives, either removable or internal are at historically low prices. And they are at a reliability level that leaves no excuse for bypassing this very important part of your daily activity.
I have a total of six hard drives; three removable and three internal. I do basic back-ups of all my work, then back-ups of the back-ups. But to do even a basic back-up, you only need one additional hard drive. If you cannot install an internal drive, get a removable one that’s at least the same size as your main drive. If you can afford a larger drive and partition it, that will help more.
The software programs for backing-up are widely available for both Windows and Apple users. I have used SuperDuper!, Chronsync and there are many others out there. These programs are available via download and are cheap. A basic back-up plan may cost you between $100 - $150. But it’s worth the thousands of dollars you may lose recreating work, or reimbursing your client’s. Do it today!