What would happen if your home PC crashed and could not be fixed?
Well, hopefully not much because you have good backup of your data files.
Yeah, you would have to purchase a new PC and reload the critical software you need, , , certainly a hassle but still recoverable.
If you don’t have good backup of your data and image files, it could be a nightmare – right?
I was always pretty good about backing up my files because I run my business on my PC. The data I have here is irreplaceable and critical to my company, , , so I backed up the data at least once a month and kept a copy off site in a bank lock box. I felt pretty good about it.
Then, I learned about Carbonite, www.carbonite.com.
Cabonite backs up the data you select to be backed up automatically from a PC and stores it onto a remote server. The data is encrypted to protect it and you always have access to it, no matter where you are as long as you can get to the Internet.
Need to recover lost files, , , or an entire PC disk drive? No problem.
Need to get a copy of an old PowerPoint presentation while in Brussels? No problem, , , login to your Carbonite account and download it.
I can tell you that since starting to use Carbonite about two years ago, I feel better about my backups and off site storage than ever. It’s simple and cheap.
I know a few CIO’s who have decided to use Carbonite in their corporate office to be sure certain high level PC users (CEO and CFO, for example) have their data backed up and accessible when they are out of town, , , or in case of a disk crash on their PC.
Can you imagine how painful it would be to a CFO if he lost his company PC? Sure, you want them to back up all their personal files onto the corporate backup drives, , , but they tend not to. I can tell you that a lot of these personal files are important work files and to lose them would be very painful, , , possibly very expensive to the company.
And when a problem happens where you can’t restore a simple little PC, who gets the blame? You got it, , , the IT department.
For $54.00 a year, you can take care of the CFO and have peace of mind. Recovery of his personal files is just an internet connection away.
Got any favorite tools you like?
Post a comment and let the ITLever readers and me hear about them. Don’t assume everyone knows about your favorite tool, , , I can assure you many won’t know about it and that probably includes me.
ITLever™ 
I have come to love the ClickFree drives for personal backup as well. I recommend them to everyone I work with and know. Why? They are easy to use so people will actually backup their home computers. As more and more videos and photographs are being stored on pc’s and Mac’s it’s more important than ever to back them up. The ClickFree drives are plug and play. I now use a network version which can back up three computers automatically while only plugged into one of them. It’s a “set it and forget it” design…see http://www.goclickfree.com
Richard, Excellent, , , thanks for sharing on ITLever.
Years ago, I had a little QIC-80 tape drive on my home pc, and I used it religiously to back up. I felt secure, and that felt good.
All went well until one day I needed to retrieve an older version of a data file. I thought it would be no problem since I knew the file was backed up on tape.
But, in keeping with the irony that so frequently appears in our lives, the tape drive died during the restore of the file, and it would not ever come back to life. I suppose I could’ve paid a bunch more money to get the tape drive fixed (or buy a new one), but the technology was already out-of-date, and the file that needed to be restored wasn’t THAT important.
That taught me an important lesson. Be prepared for ANYTHING because the worst CAN happen.
Dave, thanks – that’s a very good example of “what can go wrong” even when you think all is in good order.