My computer starting getting random errors messages. Having been sick recently my desire to go look at error logs and fix the issues was nill. That annoying pop up error dialogue had to go. It has been awhile since I refreshed my operating system so I decided to reinstall it and restore my files from backup. After all, I religiously back up my files. What could go wrong?
Unfortunately, some of my files were corrupted when they had copied over during a backup and were never replaced with new copies. My backup program was set to ignore existing files unless they were newer. So that one backup that didn't copy over correctly? I lost it.
The files were not very important. However this could have been much worse. This has reminded me of the importance of not only backing up regularly, but how you do it. Here are my tips:
Use a backup program that creates multiple incremental copies of your files during one backup session. In case something happens to one copy, you'll have another one.
Verify the backups once in a while by actually trying to open or just see that the files are there. You can also try test restoring from backup operations. You can set the restore to a location that doesn't overwrite your working files.
Backups should be in 2 or 3 different disks such as an internal hardrive and an external drive. Don't put all of your trust in one drive or location.
Conclusion
There are many free backup programs available for all operating systems. Some even come installed on external drives. Make use of them. At the very least have one full backup of your files somewhere. Many don't bother at all and then lose all there important pictures and work when their hard drive fails.
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