Your Computer Eats Your Stuff

This is just a heads up for anyone who might believe otherwise, but YOUR COMPUTER EATS YOUR STUFF! What do I mean? I mean, you should absolutely not rely solely on your computer to store information. I see this time and time again…someone’s computer dies and they don’t know the URL of their website builder, or they lose all their bookmarks, or their passwords are all gone. This is just incomprehensible to me. And, it’s totally preventable.

First, and I can’t believe we still need to say this in 2009, back up your data. This is not complicated, in fact it’s quite easy. Two words: FLASH DRIVE. This is a small USB storage device that you just stick in your computer, drag your files to it, and voila, you’re backed up. You can store an unbelievable amount of data on a flash drive, and you can stick it on a key ring even so it’s always with you. It’s far easier than burning things to CD’s too.

Also, back up your browser’s bookmarks. How you do this varies by browser, but every single browser (that I know of) is capable of letting you backup your bookmarks. So do it, at least once per month, if not more often. And backup them up into a file that will also get put on your flash drive! That way, if you ever lose all your browser’s bookmarks, you can easily import them at a future date.

As for passwords, there are far too many people that store all their website passwords only on their computers. Oy. Not smart. You should have hard copies of all your important passwords stored somewhere outside of that stuff-eating computer. I keep passwords in a rolodex for a quick and handy reference. You have to do something, because heaven knows, we need our passwords! So be smart about it and keep a hard copy of them somewhere.

If you own an online business, I can’t stress enough the importance of backing up and saving all of your important Internet data. And since it’s so easy, there’s really no reason not to do it. So rage against that stuff-eating machine, and BACK UP!