debcook

Data backup is one of the most important maintenance tasks that you can do. It never seems too important until you need to access data that has already been destroyed. If it has not happened to you already – it will sooner or later. With all of the choices we have available to us it is unthinkable to suffer such a fate.

It is not always convenient to backup new files. It seems that as soon as I backup my laptop files I add new ones at a fast pace. Before I realize how much time has past I am a couple of weeks into new data. I am not always at home so my Maxtor external hard drive is not readily available.

The solution is an easy one. Small compact flash drives fill in on a temporary basis. I have separate folders on my flash drive and on my Maxtor that mirror those on my laptop. Once I am at my desk I plug into my Maxtor external hard drive and back up entire folders. At any time I have at least three copies of my important data files.

At the end of each year I make another folder with the year as the name. I pull all of the file folders from that year into it. With 250GB of capacity I will not run out of space for a very long time.

External hard drives are worth their weight in gold. Thankfully most are pretty small and they cost much less than gold. I could go as far as to say my Maxtor is pretty. It looks like brushed aluminum and it is held upright by a small blue plastic base. I could lay it over on its side but I prefer it to stand upright as in the photo. A USB cable connects it to my laptop and I keep the power cord plugged into an APC surge protector. A single button turns it on and the blue light that flashes during the time it is connected to my laptop gives me comfort.