Last week something horrifying happened. The hard drive in my iMac died. Kaput. It was getting a little wonky and then… nothing. Well, not nothing. I was getting a white screen of death, and nothing else.
As Jim Rohn used to say, God rest his soul, “The Bible holds two kinds of stories: Examples and Warnings. Do what these people did. Don’t do what these clods did.”
Thankfully, this story is going to be an example, not a warning (technically the story isn’t over yet, but I think it’s gonna be an example).
When my computer died, I didn’t bat an eye or shed a tear. First of all, because of PAER, I also have a laptop, which is how I’m writing this right now.
No downtime, check.
But what about all my stuff? The Physician Assistant Exam Scholars Newsletters? The hundreds of podcasts and emails stored on that hard drive? The last six years of work???
Because my wife and both have laptops, plus the desktop, I’ve used Dropbox for years. Dropbox was the first company to figure out file sharing between computers. Years ago, I set it up so that no matter which of three computers I was working on, they all mirrored each other, and I had access to all my files. No more “my documents” folder. Everything I do runs through Dropbox.
All of my documents, my podcasts, my wife’s workshops, everything is “backed up” on Dropbox and sitting here on my laptop; I can’t even tell that my desktop is playing a harp on a cloud somewhere.
Files and important documents, check.
What about pictures?
Going back to before my wedding and when digital cameras first became thing (gasp), I have tons of pictures. I’m a camera guy. I drive my relatives and family nuts. I like pictures (maybe it’s because my memory sucks).
And no, I do not use Dropbox to back up my pictures…
I use a different service called BackBlaze for pictures (I have a lot). And for the whopping sum of $60.00 per year they BackBlaze backups up my entire iMac. The whole thing. All of it.
So the first thing I did when my iMac died was to go onto BackBlaze’s site and make sure my pictures were there. Thankfully, they are.
I haven’t decided exactly how to handle the data migration onto my new computer (it comes Friday!!) but I’m also not worried about it. I know EVERYTHING is safe.
(I even have one more back up on a hard drive sitting under my desk. It’s a little old, but it’ll have 98% of my pictures and documents. I like BackBlaze though because it’s offsite. Meaning it’s not at my house. If the house burns down, the hard drive under my desk is pretty useless.)
Anyway, let this be an example for you. Back your stuff up. It’s cheap. It’s easy.
Oh, I also pay the $2 bucks a month or whatever to have Apple back up our iPhones. Don’t know if that’s as necessary with iCloud now, but I’ve got stuff I don’t want to lose. I pay less than 10$ per month for some serious data insurance and peace of mind.
Here are two affiliate links. One for Dropbox and one for Backblaze. Both are companies I’ve used for …. well it must be at least five years, but probably closer to 10 years now.
Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/AADQT3AtUCDK93VRgoCVCW8EG8XSJVw7nVo?src=global9
Backblaze
https://secure.backblaze.com/r/00t29s
I’ll let you know when I get everything set up, but I’ll tell you, it’s been nice to not even worry about it.
Don’t be a warning to your friends and family. Be an example.
Brian Wallace