Backup, backup, backup!

OK! A fun start to the day. One of my hard drives died, taking a lot of work with it. As is the cascading way of things my local backup solution also failed, leaving me short by 400 Gb of files. Not great.

Fortunately my secondary online backup solution had backed everything up. Rather than going the data recovery route I was able to quickly replace the defective drive from the stack of spares I keep on hand for such eventualities, and spin it up in short order. That drive is filling with those 400 Gb of files, downloading as I type. And then I’m back to work. Out a day, true. But no sweat.

In the meantime, I ordered two 5Tb backup drives to rebuild the backup solution. Here by tomorrow.

I know many people like to use OneDrive or such for synching work files and that is a great option for some, but for people like myself that routinely make huge graphics or work with video, it’s impractical. Local still works best in some cases. So, if I had not had an online backup option I would be in a world of serious hurt right now. Email archives. Source files. Client files. Resource libraries. Office documents. Templates. And more.

This is why everyone needs a proper backup plan. Things happen. Power spikes, electrical fires, theft, flood. It’s definitely worth the $6 per month cost for an online service, whichever one you choose to use. That’s what, the cost of a beer? A lottery ticket? Drive-thru breakfast costs more. And backups have zero calories.

Impact

I strongly recommend those with critical files and no backup plan implement some kind of solution ASAP. I’m not even touting for business (contact us :). This is simply a PSA. You may only ever need a backup once in your life, but when you do you will be glad it was there. Very. Instead of sitting here writing this I could have been frantically calling clients, apologizing for imminent missed deadlines, booking reshoots, begging colleagues to resend emails and attachments, explaining lost financials. Consoling my wife because the family photos are lost forever. Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it? Such an impact can not be overstated.

Me? I planned. Now that I’ve written this and scheduled it to run tomorrow (today?) morning I’m going to the couch to watch TV, in the happy knowledge that I didn’t lose a single byte of valuable data. I can sit and relax while the computer rebuilds itself. I will go to bed later and sleep easy, and in the morning begin a fresh day with a fully restored system. Knowing I will be getting a delivery of drives sometime. So I also have a ringing doorbell to look forward to. Bonus. Because I had backups.

Seriously, if you don’t have a backup strategy, make one. It’s not if your drives will fail. It’s when.

Plan for it.