Back It Up or Lose It

"That won't happen to me" is how many of us think about a computer crash that could wipe out our files. But you don't need to have a computer crash to lose all of your files, folders, programs, and emails. You could lose them because of a power shortage, errors in transferring files to another computer, or a partial shutdown.

HOW MUCH IS YOUR TIME WORTH?

How long would it take you to re-create that list of clients' phone numbers, addresses, actions, results that you keep on your pc? How long would it take you to re-create articles you've written, marketing sources you've been saving, your list of newsletters and subscribers? And how long would it take you to hunt for, find, and download all those ebooks, reports, and programs you downloaded before?

Much of it you simply can't re-create. For example, when you lose your email folders, you can't re-create the content of those folders even if you had saved the email addresses. It's all gone.

Is it starting to make sense why you should have saved it somewhere else? The extra few minutes it takes you to back-up your data is worth gold because you simply cannot re-create or retrieve all files, folders, programs that you currently have on your computer.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Backing up your data (all files, folders, programs), means you'll need to save your data to a disk, CD or location other than your hard drive. For example, you can save your data to:

1) a Zip disk - You'll need a zip drive.
2) a CD - You'll need a CD burner.
3) a floppy disk- You'll need to consider this one carefully because a floppy does not hold much data.
4) an external hard drive - These are less expensive now than they used to be.
5) a secure, Web-based file storage service - These are online services where you can save your data. One example of an online service that does this is http://www.ibackup.com/.

But the most important thing you'll need is a willingness to change your habits. Most people I know back up their data once per week, often on a Friday but many web owners and newsletter publishers do it daily. Given all the marketing, coaching, newsletter lists and all the software I download, daily back-up makes more sense for me.

BACKING UP EMAIL FOLDERS

I don't back up my emails folders to a CD but prefer using a program to do that. This nifty little program http://www.genie-soft.com works miracles with my email addresses and all email folders.

DON'T PUT IT OFF

I know that backing-up your files seems like another addition to your busy schedule. But remember that you've worked hard to build your client or newsletter list ... and your practice. Take just a few minutes each week to protect that investment.