The 3rd of the month -- Hey! it's backup day!

Did you backup your home computer today? Did you?

Probably not. And I hope you wake up tomorrow to find that:

1. Your hard drive is dead
2. You've accidentally wiped important documents
3. A virus has damaged your operating system
4. Your computer has been stolen
5. Your house has burnt down
AND
6. A lightning-strike has destroyed your hard drive

Regarding the lightning-strike possibility: don't snigger. It happened to my parents about two years ago, along with several other houses around them. Computers, microwaves, televisions: all sorts of things were destroyed. Naturally there were no backups.

If you're the geek in your family (and I know that you are) then you have an obligation to use your geekery for good instead of evil.

The third of the month is the day when you back up your home PC -- and you insist that your family and friends back up their's as well.

backups backups backups

So how do you actually do one of these?

I think there are two types. Type one is a 'complete' backup, an image of your hard drive. This is impractical and unneccessary for most home users, so I'll ignore it. Type two, which is relevant here, is to backup your most valuable information. A stepped list is provided below.

1. Work out what to backup
2. Schedule it! (once a month is good!)
3. So back it up already
4. Mark your back ups
5. Take it off site!
6. Automate what you can

On the 3rd of October I might solicit more details about how to achieve each of these steps. People who read this blog are cluey enough to perform a backup and take it off-site.

Don't overcomplicate it. Just get on with it.

Best of Luck!

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