Bush fire backups - the art of running away part A

During the recent bush fire emergency in Tasmania a few people asked me about backups.

Many of us had to evacuate and I got questions about what to backup before evacuating.

The answer to that is "you know better than me". I don't and can't know what data you have and where you've put it.

Often, when I am sitting with a person configuring or checking their backups, they don't know where they are putting files and photos etc.

If that is you I suggest you have a read of another article I wrote about this: https://www.ihatemypc.com.au/single-post/2019/01/14/Understanding-where-your-files-are

Obviously this can make backing up what is important somewhat hit and miss and recovering it (or just finding it) even harder.

While most computers these days encourage you to put files in logical places like "Photos", "Documents", "Videos" and so on, it is by no means necessary or enforced.

You can still pretty much put files wherever you want and, as you can imagine, this is not without certain risks.

To make matters trickier, some programs/app's insist on putting their data "somewhere else".

This means you need to know how to backup these program's data to a place you can manage or at least access.

Of course, when it comes to your safety, you need to evacuate the danger zone as earlier as possible.

You probably won't have time to be faffing around with computer backups. Your backups should have already been sorted out a long time ago. They should already be out of the way of the fire or any other disaster for that matter.

So the solution is probably staring you in the face - take the computer with you!

If it is a laptop, great, you're good to go.

If it is an all-in-one i.e. the screen and the computer are one big unit (like Apple iMac's for example) then you take that.

If the machine is a PC with a tower or a box under or on your desk somewhere, then just take that box if your time is limited.

That isn't ideal because there are still risks. A bouncy ride in a car has killed many a computer but at least you won't be burnt to death trying to work out where "that picture' is.

So while things are calm now you should create and execute your data backup plan.

Seriously, now. Do it.

David

#backups #Backblaze