What Do You Do When Your Computer Crashes? Part 2

Yesterday’s post discussed the issues you’ll face when your computer crashes. Today, we’ll talk about the process of recovery and how to make it infinitely easier.

Backups are the key! Always, always backup your system regularly, at least once a month, and weekly if you have a business or add data like pictures and music to your computer frequently.

Even if you don’t backup your entire system, make copies of your data files. On a PC, those files are usually: documents, pictures, music and videos. There are other important files too, but these four are the minimum you should save.

You can copy them to an external hard drive that you can buy at most stores, or you can use a zip drive. Use whatever you have as long as it has enough storage to hold your files.

But, these drives are hardware and, like any piece of hardware, they can fail too. So the best way to backup and preserve your system, data and files is to subscribe to a cloud backup service like CrashPlan, Norton Online Backup, Carbonite, or MozyHome.

They all offer slightly different services, so do your research to determine which service best fits your needs. The costs average about $50 a year for a single license, but if you ever need to recover your computer, it’ll be the best $50 you’ve ever spent.

Remember, your data is very valuable to you. And, if you have a home-based business, backing up your files could be crucial to its survival.

Think of it as the insurance policy you’d buy for a brick and mortar business. Having backups readily available in an emergency can save your time, money and sanity!

-Lyn Williams, Author, Speaker and "Love and Happiness Mastery" Coach
http://www.thewomanexec.com