Backup!

Backup, backup and I’ll say it again…BACKUP!

I can’t tell you how many writer friends I have who forget or just plain refuse to back up their systems. It’s not that hard and it will save you a lot of headache in the end.

There are CDs, memory cards and flash drives to use for backups. Let’s not forget about external hard drives either. I have my stuff on a flash drive. The older, finished work is stored on the flash drive along with my PC. The new stuff gets backed up daily through an online backup company.

At lot of online backup sites give you a certain amount of space for free. They will also allow you to backup your entire system for a fee.

I can’t stress the importance of backing up your files. The last thing any of us want or need is to lose the new novel we’re writing three days before deadline or worse, lose all of our hard work to the ether.

The site that immediately comes to mind for me is Mozy. Bonnie recommended this to me after a particularly nasty crash she had recently. I’ve since enrolled and allow it to backup my files daily. It does this automatically, usually while I’m sleeping, and requires absolutely no more action from me now that I’ve registered with them.

Go ahead and try it. You have nothing more to lose other than another sleepless night the next time your computer crashes.

Tianna