Do as I say, not as I do

**Pal334** · 02-17-2010, 07:25 PM

Off and on we have discussed the need to back up your information, what type of equipment to use etc. A while back I started to use netbooks one for work and one for home. Well the one for home was not used much, I continued to use the larger old laptop most of the time. Well I backed things up at least once weekly and was so proud of myself, until today. That old laptop crashed and burned in a rather spectaclular way. I cheekily thought , "no biggy". EXCEPT, yours truely had been backing everything up EXCEPT for "my Favorites" all those lovely sites that folks here have shared, others that I painstakingly found and saved over the years. I do have them backed up up until about a year or so ago, but somehow they had been deleted from the recent back ups.

Lesson to be learned? Make sure your favorites are being backed up also, it is amazing how much and what was there. Also, keep checking to make sure that your back up routine has not somehow gotten changed.

**Justin Case** · 02-17-2010, 07:31 PM

Good Advice ! I have a little notebook on my desk that I write Passwords and site info in as well,, I also use a Hotmail account and sometimes mail myself copies of stuff as a back up,, my computer can burst into flames and i will still have my mail

**welderguy** · 02-17-2010, 07:32 PM

That is terrible sorry to hear you lost your computer and all your recent links.

**Camp10** · 02-17-2010, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by Justin Case

I also use a Hotmail account and sometimes mail myself copies of stuff as a back up,, my computer can burst into flames and i will still have my mail

Yup! I do this also.

**Ken** · 02-17-2010, 07:47 PM

Oh yeah, that's happened to me as well. This is the only home computer I use to go online (99.9% of the time, anyway) for non-business purposes. The only stuff I need to back-up on this machine are "My Favorites" and "My Documents," including downloaded Forums private messages and articles and stuff that I've grabbed off the web, and I do that a couple of times each week now.

ALL of my business/law practice documents and financial records are on another computer at my law office that is now backed up automatically every day. Once a week I exchange external back-up hard drives and take the newest one home from the office and lock it in a fireproof safe. I rarely use the internet from the office, and ONLY for selected e-mail senders and secure research sites, all protected by a firewall and security programs. I take selected files and work in progress home on a thumb drive, but they NEVER get loaded onto this computer.

I have two computers side by side in my office at home. The one I use for office work and client files has NEVER been used on-line and never will be. It pretty much mirrors the system I have in the office, and can't be hacked because it's isolated from the web.

In my profession, business and pleasure don't mix, and I use my computers accordingly.

**Pal334** · 02-17-2010, 08:20 PM

Ken,, so true. The work computer is almost bullet proof. Because of our work, use DoD encryption. But just this one lapse causes a real pain. Fortunately no actual information was lost

**Rick** · 02-17-2010, 08:23 PM

Ken doesn't have to worry because he doesn't have anything to back up. He lost it all in the last crash!!!!!!!

I had copy select folders over to my backup drive. Even though all of them are in the scheduled backup I still want to be sure.

**Rick** · 02-17-2010, 08:24 PM

How did you come out with the office that rains anyway?

**Ken** · 02-17-2010, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

How did you come out with the office that rains anyway?

Everything's good, thanks. I've actually spent less than an hour in the law office this year.

I've been able to work (when I've been able to work

) from home without a problem. I was able to get to court today for an hour-long appearance for the first time in well over month.

The office is all cleaned up. I even still have a couple of Christmas gifts there I'd forgotten all about.

Nothing like walking into a flood on Christmas Eve and getting knocked out of commission less than 2 weeks later.

A friend helped me out and picked up 2 new computers for me with an "XP Downgrade" and all of the files were reloaded from the back-ups. Didn't lose a single byte of work. Got a new fax machine, too - but there's an intermittent problem receiving incoming faxes - just one little glitch to work out.

I also just found out that my closed circuit video security system is lunch. No sweat there. The old one served me well since I bought it from Sam's Club for about $600.00 in 1997. I'm looking into a new system that has remote digital recording and monitoring capabilities - all encrypted - via the web. Dern thing ain't cheap, though.

The office carpets were all professionally cleaned, ceiling tiles replaced, mold prevention work completed, furniture all scrubbed and polished. The place is so squeeky clean and sanitized that I'm ready to perform surgery on my conference table.

Need anything removed?