We are all sharing a space ship called Earth.
Some small percentage of humanity doesn’t know that we’re all on the same ship.
That small percentage spends a good portion of their lives trying to blow up their own ship.
———————
This post is about offsite data backups of your computer through Mozy.
If you don’t have some offsite data backup somewhere, please get one set up.
———————
Some thief recently broke into my brother’s house.
They didn’t just steal 1 or 2 things. They stole everything.
Everything.
Except the furniture, kitchen stuff, and the books.
No surprise that they didn’t steal the books… it doesn’t take much education to be a thug.
TV’s, stereos, and even music collections, are just stuff.
While we all get pretty attached to the things around us, the interesting thing about “stuff”, even a lot of stuff. is that it can be replaced.
And heirlooms, while treasured and irreplaceable, are things that you can part with.
They remind you of the people who gave them to you, but you still keep those memories even if you don’t have the heirlooms.
And so Adam and Laura will recover and move forward from that loss pretty quickly. They already are moving forward.
I’m always really proud of my brother and sister-in-law in the way they take care of others and always are so willing to help anyone.
I have been especially proud of my brother this week. He’s already working to let go of his anger at the people who did this, and already making his characteristic jokes.
I don’t know if I would be that strong in similar circumstances.
For those who have never met him, my younger brother (who this happened to), is one of the nicest and most generous people you could meet.
He’s really genuine.
If he says he will do something, you can count on it happening. It might not happen right that instant, but it will happen.
He is also a computer guy.
So is my older brother.
Being a tech. guy, Adam had multiple backups of his data in case one hard drive crashed.
He protected against physical loss of the hard drives by having multiple backups.
He did what he was supposed to do.
The only events Adam and Laura’s data wasn’t protected against:
- Fire
- Thorough thievery
The backups were at his house.
The backups were also stolen.
What this means is that the computer and hard drives aren’t just “stuff”.
The things Adam has given his life to over the past 5 years, the thousands of hours spent working on his and multiple clients’ projects, are gone.
Imagine it.
All the work you’ve done in the past 5 years – gone.
Of course you would retain the things you had learned.
You’d be able to re-build with your new knowledge.
At the same time, you’d be missing a lot.
Here’s what Adam and Laura now don’t have:
- Pictures from the last five years of their lives together
- Every PDF or Word Doc they have ever downloaded
- Uncompleted projects that will never be completed
- Built file structures for keeping themselves organized
- Computer programs they spent thousands of dollars to get
- Time spent installing programs
- Thousands of hours spent rendering videos for projects
These are just some of the irreplaceable items they’ve lost.
Crooks somehow don’t get that if you’re going to take something, fine…
I’ll be sad if you take my stuff.
I’ll be frustrated and then fascinated by your philosophies, but the insurance company will reimburse me, and eventually I will get over it.
Just please…
Leave me my trust in the overall goodness of people.
Leave me my work.
Leave me my livelihood.
Those are my passion. Those are my ability to have vitality.
What you’re taking, when you take my stuff, is not just stuff.
You’re taking my trust in the very nature of humanity.
And that is infinitely more valuable than what you will be able to sell a gold ring for on eBay.
This experience has shown me just how vulnerable we all are.
I’m always telling people:
- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
- Backup your computer.
- Save early and save often.
- Get your will done just in case.
- Discipline weighs ounces. Regret weighs tons.
If you’ve spent any time with me, those are undoubtedly words you’ve heard me say.
And I build in redundancy and backups for projects that I work on for other people.
Just a few months ago, a client’s computer had crashed and taken Outlook with it, but I had set up her email with an online backup, so that all she had to do was login, and all of her emails were there.
She was (and continues to be) very grateful for that backup.
But it’s like the housecleaner’s house being dirty, or the plumber’s sink being backed up.
For myself, I almost always think about computer backups as being something you do by saving to a hard drive connected to the computer.
Even though all of our pictures are backed up in multiple places (Carrie and I are signed up for Google’s extra storage to back up all of our pictures), the last time I backed up my whole computer was when we left the United States in October 2009.
Do you know everything you’ve worked on in the past year and a half?
I don’t even know what I’ve worked on in the past month.
And so today, I’m offering something stronger than a recommendation.
I’m BEGGING you…
Avoid the heartache of losing everything on your computer.
Sign up for a backup service which automates the backup process, and does it on at least a weekly basis.
Daily backups would be better.
Take steps to ensure that the work you’re doing on your computer is backed up at some place that is far away from the source of your work, and preferably, back it up multiple places.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on off-site backups in the last week.
The company I’m recommending is the one that has the best customer service, the most storage space (UNLIMITED – truly unlimited), and is also among the least expensive.
It’s called Mozy.
You can back up an entire computer (all essential and important items) for $55/year.
When you sign up for Mozy through the links on this page, we’ll earn a commission.
100% of all commissions earned through the purchase of this service will go to my brother and his wife as they work to re-build what has been taken.
Whether you get ongoing backups through Mozy or from somewhere else, please
- get some plan in place for backing up all your files off-site.
- Store your backup of your computer files in a place away from wherever they are stored right now.
- Have multiple backups.
This is a wake-up call for me. Carrie and I will be working to do a much better job of backing up our data in multiple places on an ongoing basis.
The nice thing about Mozy is that it will automate much of the process for us.
Hope that my communicating Adam and Laura’s experience can be a wake-up call for you too.
Please keep Adam and Laura in your thoughts and prayers. And get something in place to back all of your data off-site.
Do it today.
We’re still reeling from the shock of this burglary and so proud of the way Adam and Laura are moving forward. Thank-you for always looking for a way to turn trajedy into a learning opportunity. The first time I really saw you do this was during the Chucky Cheese murders in Aurora. You were in 8th grade and were deeply saddened by what had occured. But instead of just being sad or angry, you and another young man started up a school newspaper to highlight the ways even one person can make a difference. You are making a difference, Jon and Carrie, and I hope everyone reads this and signs up for Mozy or some kind of back-up to their computers. Love ya!
Thanks Mom! We definitely want to do whatever we can to support Adam and Laura as they are going through this.
Happy to use what I know about affiliate marketing to help them as well. I, too, hope everyone gets some kind of offsite storage which automatically backs up files. It’s tragedy to see Adam and Laura go through it. It would be travesty not to warn others and help them not have to go through the same.
Wow, so sorry this happened to them!
Thanks for your kind thoughts sent their direction. Definitely a difficult spot/time for them. All thoughts and prayers appreciated.
So sorry this happened to them, I hope they are able to recover quickly. We also work online and with a lot of customer files. We have always kept a terrastation as a backup external hard drive, thinking that most viruses cannot get to it. Then in a fit of worry we backed up most of our important files to another external hard drive. Both of these are locked in the safe when we are not home. HOWEVER… we experienced a power spike down here in Boquete, Panama and both drives blew at the same time. Yes you have it – zero backups, not even our backup’s backup can be accessed. We have since done as you have suggested and keep our information on a new external hard drive and in online backups.
I highly recommend this to everyone. Backups can blow or be stolen or crash and it is best to have redundant systems in place, even if it is just your photos or music collection – it is all important.
Fene
Fene, sorry to hear about the power spike. Those seem pretty common in most parts of the world outside of the US. How much stuff do you figure you lost?
We are now looking into installing a line conditioner. Fortunately we were able to contact the manufacturer and they sent us to a data recovery service. We boxed up all 4 drives and sent them from Panama to Colorado and they were able to recover everything, almost a terrabyte of information. It was not cheap and but it certainly was a wake up call and we now have 3 redundant services in place, online, DVD burn and external hard drive.
We are currently enjoying Buenos Aires and Mendoza and are travelling with the external and the online constant backup. We certainly feel much better now. Enjoy you next few months, can´t wait to read about all these countries.