Last week, I got a bad shock when I saw the following screens when I started up my computer.
A reboot did the trick, but my heart sank soon with the following screen
What followed later what a series of frantic attempts (scandisks, system restores, etc) to get the laptop working. Eventually, a visit down to the service centre was necessary.
As a result of this incident, I have to reformat my laptop. However I feel I was quite lucky in a sense. This is because most of the important information is stored in our Confluence wiki, JIRA and other web applications. What is lost is only some work in progress and some time to reinstall the applications. The consequences could have been much worse if all the information was lying in my laptop.
And while the laptop is being serviced, I was still able to access to information and continued with my work (though my productivity dropped a bit). I need not worry about the technician having access to my confidential files on my laptop while repairing it. I do not need to spend time backing up my laptop every now.
Some of my friends said this could have been avoided if I backed up my files regularly. So I am now very curious about the backup habits of others. How often do you back up your files?
Lastly, if you haven’t done anything to backup your data, let this be a reminder. Machines can be replaced easily, but not the content inside!
If you want to back up personal files for free and not on a work database, try Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace. It’s an online storage location that you can securely upload files to in order to access them anytime from anywhere with an internet connection. You only need to provide a valid email address in order to set up your workspace, and then you can store up to 5 GB worth of any type of file (except executable files), as long as the individual files are under 25 MB.
– Jake
MSFT Office Live Outreach Team