If you enjoy your technology like I do, create a plan to help survive your computer dying. When it comes to protecting your technology and data, don’t get ready, stay ready.
Recently, for no reason at all, through no fault of my own, the hard drive on my laptop computer decided to stop working. I had to send my computer back to the manufacturer for service. I saw the breakdown as an inconvenience. My husband who has been married to this magazine publisher for 31 years, saw an opportunity for a series of articles. I use my computer for work, for fun, for pleasure, and for entertaining my children. I really like my computer.
Last week in this space I talked about why you should switch to electronic life organization rather than paper day planners. In the upcoming weeks I will be looking at ways to survive the failure of your smartphone and tablet. Today is all about how to be prepared for your computer to die on you unexpectedly.
There are many options for backing up your computer and saving your information. The prices of the options for the various backup methods vary. In this article, I will be discussing only free or very low-cost options because as a wife, mother of four, and a business owner, I must be very careful with how I allocate my funds.
Most people are familiar with modern storage devices such as external hard drives, DVD, CD, SD cards, and USB flash drives. Each of these devices allows you to save your files to the external storage device and then retrieve them on your computer or someone else’s computer at a later date. I back up all my data files to DVD and a USB flash drive each week. Files that are particularly important to me get sent to the SD card I keep in my SD drive as they are created.
These storage methods have proven to work very well for me. I have used them when I needed to restore my computer to factory setting. I was then able to put my data back on the computer after a nasty computer virus.
If you use any of the Microsoft Office products, I suggest you get a free email account with live.com and use the One Drive cloud storage. A neat feature of One Drive is that you can install it on your computer and with a few keyboard strokes and mouse clicks, all your files will be stored on your local hard drive and in the cloud. One Drive allows me to store word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and photo files. It is also nice because it is easy for me to use files sent to me by customers, fellow writers and even help my children proofread school assignments. One Drive is great because there are many smartphone and tablet programs that allow you to save and retrieve files.
If you want to read more about technology, check out:
Technology Tip – Use Your Phone as a Personal Organizer – It is terrific to know that you can use your phone as a personal organizer and keep your life in order. Click here to read more.
5 Ways to Use Your Technology to Work Smarter -It is terrific to start using your technology to work smarter and not just harder. Click here to read more.
Also, check out our Confidence Tip of the Day YouTube channel for hundreds of videos on creating the confidence you need to succeed.
Two of my favorite programs are Evernote and OneNote. With these two programs, your files called notes are stored in folders called notebooks. All your notes and notebooks are accessible in the cloud, on your smartphone, or on your tablet. In addition, they both have a large number of add-on programs that make them even more efficient, easy to use, and comprehensive.
Presently, I am using OneNote because I ran out of notebooks in my Evernote free account. I am enjoying the unlimited space in OneNote and the customization possible. I like that I can use it on unlimited devices. So I have it on my phone, tablet, and laptop. No matter where I want to work, I can turn on OneNote and go!
One of the best ways to prepare for your laptop dying is to prepare all your electronic devices to be able to be work machines if the need arises. Of course, the small phone screen is not as pleasing to work with as your large computer monitor or laptop. But, in the event of an emergency, it is a good backup option.
I makes sure that programs I download to my laptop forwork have counterparts that work on my phone and tablet. That way, no matter what device I am using, I can do what needs to be done. I do not use Apple products, so my PC, Android tablet, and Android phone. Over the years I have had tablets made by Casio, Kindle, and other manufacturers. Currently, I am using a Samsung Galaxy tab.
As this article has shown, the best way to handle your computer dying is to prepare in advance. Prepare with backups – physical and cloud-based. Prepare with software that can be used on multiple devices. So, the question for you this terrific day is, what do you do to be prepared for the death of your computer?
I learned this the hard way and I hope no one else has to!! There is nothing like losing all your information and trying not to let your babies see you cry!
Yikes. I needed this post last year sometime. Good info though *goes to back up files*
Janeane, ur success story lies with ur bosom and that is ur heart. No one gives as freely as urself and not receive tenfold or more. I am here in any way that I can possibly be for u and ur family. Yes, it’s fb, but there r genuine ppl here that ask for nothing in return and freely share their knowledge like urself. Thank u for ur knowledge, it is priceless. Who I am as a human being and the checking of my creditials; theres a place that I want pp to go to checkout my credibility, and that is my place of worship. What is the reason for my even saying such a thing? Because what u see is genuine from me; many ppl pretend and r up to no good (wolves in sheep’s clothing). If ever that time should come, check out who I really am and receive my heart with comfort. My husband is cautiously out within the folds of society as a helpmate globally, and I am at home on the computer as cautiously as possible as a helpmate to whom I am blessed to meet. I want ur next endeavor to work for u and u not work for it. I am ur friend.
I am sorry to hear about your problems with no back up!
Hi Janeane, I voted for you for the Liebster Award. http://lovedesignlife.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/the-liebster-award/
Thanks for sharing! I too lost my hard drive in Nov. Sad day, but moving on. I hadn’t backed up in too many months to mention. I also have been meaning to get Evernote up and running so your blog is perfectly timed.
It’s a a shame but I’d be lost without internet too. I was a mess when I was without internet for two days last week. It’s frustrating waiting on providers to get the service back up and running. Luckily I have a plan be. It’s just inconvenient.
Yes!!! Backups are a life saver.
During Hurricane Sandy I had no internet for 26 hours. It was so horrible! But I cannot complain because so many people had it much worse.
Just had my computer croak on me this past weekend. Thank goodness, I had backups or I would be toast, right now.
So sorry to hear about your computer!! I don’t have a plan, but you just reminded me that I need to back things up on this computer. I usually transfer my pictures to shutterfly periodically, but I’m going to check out the skydrive. I hope the internet never goes away, or I’ll be completely lost! LOL!