That is…if you have everything backed up. Otherwise, while life probably wouldn’t end with a computer crash, it can certainly be pretty devastating.
My recent computer crash wasn’t that devastating simply because I had almost everything backed up. I had all of my important projects, pictures, documents stored on another server somewhere else. Basically the only thing I didn’t have backed up was my archived emails and my email address book, which isn’t that big anyway so it’s not that hard to recover from.
So, for those of you who don’t have backups, let me propose 2 solutions for you.
1. Buy a web hosting package and back up your files to a remote server somewhere. This is an irreplaceable backup strategy because it’s fire safe, thief safe, flood safe, kid safe. If something happens, your data is going to be ok because it’s in a bomb proof data center somewhere that is accessable 24 hours/day 365 days/year. The beauty of web hosting is 2 fold. 1. It’s super competitive so it’s super cheap ($7-8 per month) and 2. it’s not just for web stuff. You can put ANYTHING onto a web server. You can put word docs, spreadsheets, power point files, address books. You can literally put anything that is on your home computer onto a web server. I’m not saying it will function there as a program, but you can at least store the data there so you can retrieve it in an emergency.
Backing up to a web server is as easy as dragging and dropping in windows explorer or internet explorer. A simple yet elegant backup solution.
For a web host (because I’ve been through the pains of choosing them), I suggest Bluehost.com. They currently offer 4GB of storage space (should be plenty) for $7/month. They have good customer service and they’re always upgrading their services. They make daily backups of the stuff on their servers so your data is safe there.
2. Buy an extra hard drive and Norton GHOST. It allows you to make full backups of a hard drive so that if a drive fails (and they do), you have an exact replica of the drive on another drive. You can restore from that replica and you’re back up and running in no time. Ghost costs $70 and an extra hdd should cost you less than $100 if you watch the Staples and Office Depot ads.
If you have another backup option that you find is easier or more user friendly, I’d like to know about it. I use linux as my primary pc and there are a myriad of ways of doing backups on linux. Most people however, use windows.