What I’ve been hearing about from my friends lately are complaints about computers that just packed it in unexpectedly. That in of itself is an oxymoron. After all, who ever expects their computer to call it a day? The big problem isn’t necessarily that the entire computer decided to quit. Often it’s the failure of the computer’s hard drive, which has the biggest impact on users, whether you’re a MAC, PC, or even a Linux user.
“Who ever expects their computer to call it a day?“
However, as this former IT team member can tell you. Hard drive failures are actually more common than you’d think. With one name brand PC maker, who will remain nameless here, you could almost predict what hard drive would fail next based upon the date of purchase. Particularly, when dealing with laptops. With most laptops offering a shelf life of five-seven years on average, it’s not uncommon that they see at least one hard drive failure during that time frame.
What does that mean to the average computer user? Goodbye Uncle Mel’s fiftieth birth photos, goodbye graduate thesis, goodbye video from the kids’ birthdays…you get the idea. When a hard drive fails, sometimes the data is recoverable, but often, it’s not. So, what can you do to prepare yourself for the day you have computer probs? Here’s my own personal hot-list, of tips and tricks I always employ in case my equipment goes down.
- Dropbox. There are tons of clouds computing options out there now. If you don’t know what cloud computing is, imagine you sent your data up to sit on a cloud. No matter what the weather below the clouds, your data would sit above the weather, totally unaffected. With Dropbox, you sign up for a free account, and you can store your data in a folder you control. The cool part is that on your machine, it looks exactly like a regular folder. You can drag files in and out of it. The best part, you can access your data from any Smartphone, tablet, or any computer, as long as it has Internet access. So if your computer goes down, drive on over to the public library and get back to work!
“You can access your data from any Smartphone,
tablet, or any computer, as long as it has Internet access.”
Gmail. Want to make sure you can access your e-mail from anywhere? Consider sticking with a web-based mail client like Gmail. Unlike applications like MAC Mail or Outlook, which make it all too easy to pull mail onto your computer’s hard drive, Gmail keeps everything on-line. The best feature is a slick Archive capability that allows you to keep your Inbox uncluttered and your mail accessible through the All Mail feature.
- Picasa. I’m a Google fan in a couple of respects. I love the way Google handles mail, but I also like their photo solutions. The Picasa tool is great, because it not only offers a robust desktop tool, but it also boasts a nice upload feature. There are storage limitations, but for most folks, this could easily house a majority of your digital photos. Although you could use Dropbox for this same function, why not choose a solution, which enables you to tag, manipulate, and categorize your pics in a meaningful way?
- External Storage. If you have way too many files, music or otherwise to take advantage of Dropbox or Picasa, consider and external hard drive. Though they might seem a little intimidating at first, a One Terabyte drive, that’s computer speak for really freaking huge, now goes for about $89 US. You just plug in the hard drive’s power, plug it into the USB port on your laptop and it acts just like another drive on your computer.
- Defend Your Turf. Unless you’re running Linux on your machine, there’s a ton of garbage on the Internet, just waiting to make its way onto your pristine little PC. So make sure, you’ve got a great Antivirus tool in place to help you out. Avast Antivirus is free and thorough when it comes to coming your computer for viruses, (a.k.a. malware), and adware, (ad-based tracking). You can help the cause by avoiding opening any e-mails from unknown parties, clicking on any unfamiliar links, or downloading anything when prompted online – the Internet is just not that helpful. Trust me.
- Browse Smart. There are so many more Internet browsing options out there now. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer… If you like to save Favorite sites into your browser, consider one like Chrome. Once you save a Favorite, a.k.a. bookmark, you can access it from Chrome on any computer, as long as you’ve logged in with your Google account.
But the bottom line, is no matter what you’re doing, remember to back up someplace other than your computer. Whether it’s Dropbox, another computer, an external hard drive, or flash drive, or someplace else, don’t let your computer be the only place you save your stuff. Work smart think smart. And your data will remain safe.
Have questions on anything tech oriented? Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
Website Facebook Twitter Amazon
sending...
Hi Miriam!
Thanks very much! I’m so glad that you found some good tidbits in there. It’s funny but most of us are like that. Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes! Glad I could help!
I just wrote a comment and it disappeared when I tried to post it – which is quite a propos in a way, I suppose. Losing things! Technology! Huh! What an excellent, informative article Stephanie. It would be tempting fate to say I have never ‘lost’ a hard drive, so I won’t say it (!). I am very bad a routines. This makes me realise I should go a bit further than the odd back up of my most vital files on a memory stick when I think of it. Thank you so much for all these tips.
and there it is – so good I did it twice!!
What an excellent, informative article, Stephanie. A very timely reminder for me, too, as I am very bad at what should be routine back ups. It would be tempting fate to say I have never ‘lost’ a hard drive so I won’t say that (!), but your piece makes me realise I should be thinking a bit further than just copying my most vital onto files onto a memory stick when I think of it. Not good enough!! Thanks so much for all these tips.
I have a couple of external hard drives, one of which is dedicated to backing up my laptop. Not sure how long it’s been since a full back up of the laptop was done but an incremental one is done every time a file changes or is added. The desktop computer has one, too, and is set to do a back up every night.
That’s good Melanie, but not the norm. Looks like you’re taking excellent precautions.
Yikes! I don’t back up my files nearly enough and this has just prompted me to do something about it.
That’s excellent Anneli!
Good deal! Thanks very much, Sheryl!
Ooh, feeling very smug now. I have Dropbox and Picasa – and a flash drive! Yep, been in hard drive hell. It’s not nice. Not nice at all! Excellent advice, Steph. Take heed all.
xx
Phew – you have me quivering with fear at losing everything, Stephanie! And you are right – sometimes it’s precious photos and video we forget to backup. I do have a dropbox account from when it first came out and I’d forgotton about it. Recently, I’ve been saving documents to my free Amazon ‘cloud’ and there is an option to upgrade for more space. My question to you is: how ‘safe’ is cloud storage and will my kids and their kids be able to access all my photos in many years down the line…?
Hi Janice! Thanks for stopping by today. Oh no! Sorry to put the pressure on.
That’s an excellent question. Because I am risk-adverse, I’ll tell you that there’s always a risk for ANY storage solution. Could cloud storage go down? Absolutely. However, the likelihood that that would happen is extremely minimal when compared to the likelihood that your own equipment would go. A good rule of thumb is not to keep all of your eggs in one basket. Even external hard drives can become corrupt. A rule of thumb is not to keep all of your eggs in one basket. A cloud/external storage combo greatly enhances the protection of your data.
Steph, from one who’s been there lately and only *just* managed to prevent utter disaster for herself when the harddrive gave up the ghost: Thank you for a brilliant feature! I’m a dropbox convert, I leverage email, I have an external harddrive to back up to, I let my AntiVirus software ruthlessly veto attachments of dubious provenance, and I’ll consider your other suggestions too. Fabulous feature, thank you!
Nicky,
That’s awesome. The biggest challenge that most people face is believing that it will never happen to them. However, it’s extremely common. Glad to hear that you’ve found some solutions that are working for you!
Excellent advice, I shall have a look at the Dropbox options. Thank you!
Hi Sue. Thanks very much! Yes, I am a fan of free solutions. I love Dropbox because its 1) Free and 2) Easy to use. What could be better? Good luck!
A subject on which even the most safety conscious of us need a reminder on. I will run a full back-up tonight!
Thank you Stephanie.
Ha! Good to see you’re on-ask, Harvey!