Back up

21 Jun 2001

Okay, wait, hold up; now stop what you’re doing, close all your windows and make backups of everything. If you aren’t in the habit of making regular backups, here are some tips.

• Make it easy for yourself to make backups, or else you’ll never do it. To that end:
  
• I find it helpful to consolodate all of my personal data into one directory. You can set your email program to store its messages in that directory, and you can store your Favorites there, and other programs that have important data, like PalmPilot software and financial software.
  
• CD burners are cheap and the media are practically free.

Once again, the key is making it easy for yourself. Once a week (say, Thursdays) before you go to bed, write the date on a CD-R and just throw the one directory on there. Of course, if you’ve got many gigs of data, it gets more complicated. But typically, the really essential personal data that changes regularly can fit on one CD.

Pay heed and you’ll thank me someday.