This morning I met with a major computer company with an online service that anyone can use to back up their home computer. My meeting took a back seat to a problem they were having. It seems that one of their servers was experiencing a hardware problem. It was a non-critical system but had a ripple effect on the rest of the service. It got me thinking about what happens when even the professionals have problems.
Previously I wrote about how I don't trust computers to help me keep my daily journal. However you can't always print everything and so you have to rely on some way of keeping your computer data safe.
There are many different options. You could back it up to CD or DVD disks. However I have used them in the past only to try to retrieve data and discover that the files were corrupted and the important information was lost.
You could use one of those flash drives that are becoming more popular at the same time they are increasing in size. So far I have yet to lose any data on one of those. However there is always a first time and I am sure they have a finite shelf life.
Then there are the online services like the one I was visiting this morning. However they are not imune from problems either. While they provide money-back guarantees, can you really put a price on your family vacation photos?
I still maintain that paper is the best way to go. If that isn't possible, then might I suggest a multi-prong approach. The online services really are fairly reliable and so would definitely try to incorporate one into your backup strategy. I would just be sure to include another medium as well. Then hope you never have to use it.
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