Nothing reinforces the need for good computer backups like a complete system crash. I recently experienced my first motherboard failure; the LDV technology center (fancy term for my computer) was down for over four days. Yes, it took that long to get a new computer delivered [overnight] to the end of the stagecoach line where I reside. During that time I tried to stay current with emails and support tickets using my wife’s laptop, but really missed so many of the tools installed on my main computer.
Since working as IT manager for a Colorado software company, I have ALWAYS had a backup system. This has varied from an old OnStream tape system (loud, limited storage per tape) a MaxAttach network storage device (slow, kept dropping off my home network), DVD RW (could not do unattended backups) to my present commercial/home fixed attached backup drive. Commercial/home fixed means that I purchase as Maxtor external drive, but a power surge fried the internals. Searching with Google led me to several posts on a CNET forum where folks had removed the raw drive from the Maxtor housing and put them back in generic external USB/IEEE drive cases with good results. I then ordered a drive case from Newegg.com, did the swap, plugged the new drive back in, and low and behold, it came back to life. (Note: I have since built two additional external backup drives using Newegg.com cases and raw HD’s. Now my partner and daughter away at college have good backup systems.)
When my new computer finally arrived, it was different enough from my old one that I was not able to just do a system restore. The processor and graphics cards were different, so I was only able to use selective files from the hard drive contents, which I did restore using the 300Gigs of space available. The worst side effect, I did not have a backup of my Dreamweaver site configurations, so now I must rebuild those manually when I go to manage a site. But that is minor compared to the time I saved with the ability to copy old config files into new installations.
So my advice to you; always back up your data. Do at least a weekly full backup, daily differential backups, and once a month, make a DVD backup, even take that off site if you have a secure place to store them, like a safety deposit box.
