So today I'm taking another direction in my post. While it's not directly related to stamping, and I have no stamped project to discuss, it's still definitely related to "what I do", and if you're reading this post I presume you're using a computer, and therefore this topic may pertain to you, too.  So here goes…..

Have you ever experienced that sinking feeling of doom that sweeps over you right at that moment when your computer starts spitting out gibberish – or locks up altogether and refuses to boot up?  And you just KNOW in an instant that potentially hundreds of your precious photos, your contacts list, and perhaps years' worth of tax files and other important documents and files are probably just about to go bye-bye? 

Well *I've* been there. And having experienced that dreadful moment of desperation I know that I never, ever want to have to experience it again!

Oh yes.  Having had one of the earliest PC's to find their way into people's homes (btw, did you know I began telecommuting as a programmer for a well-known company way back in 1983 after my son was born?) I, of all people, have known for literally decades that owning a hard drive means it's not a question of IF your hard drive will crash someday - but rather, "when?"  And during those same years I've at various times gone through the laborious task of backing up all my data – first to floppies, and then when the backups took hours and hours and over 100 floppies that needed to be inserted sequentially, I graduated to CD's, and then when it took a half-dozen or more CD's to complete an entire backup I ultimately switched to a series of external hard drives. 

But in spite of my efforts to be "good" and keep up with the chore, it seemed time and technology too often stood in my way – and when the absolute worst eventually happened one morning, wouldn't you know my back-up was not only very outdated, but most of it proved unreadable, too.  Thank GOODNESS I hadn't made a complete switch to digital photography yet, so most of my losses were contained to business files, and not personal pictures.  Probably my biggest fear at the time was for the 3 years' worth of tax data files that were on that drive, but thankfully I found someone who was able to pull them off for me.  (For a hefty price, of course….. and massive amounts of worry in the meantime that THAT would be the time I'd get audited by the IRS.)

And so in that year I set about to redesign and rewrite from scratch all my business files, determined that that same thing would never happen to me again.  Little did I know that the new replacement computer would last less than a year before it, too, would suffer a serious problem that required reinstalling Windows, a ton of money paid to yet another guru, and a full weeks' worth of pulling files off to CD's in order to preserve them yet again.  

And so it was that a few years ago when I stumbled upon Carbonite's Online Backup service I was READY for it!  And honestly, astonished that this "just set it and forget it" system would automatically make sure that my files were backed up at all times – without my even having to think about them. 

Now, given my difficult and unfortunate experiences with backup software and hardware in the past, I was plenty leary of something that only cost (at the time) just under $50 a year….. and claimed to accept an unlimited amount of data for storage online.  I couldn't quite grasp how that all would work, but I was curious enough to accept their offer of a free trial, figuring I could just let the trial expire like I end up doing with 3/4 of the "free trials" I accept in the software realm. 

But this "free trial" was different!  I was SO impressed that less than an hour after I installed it, I went back the website and bought a one-year subscription.  And I've renewed every year since – including today. 

Over the years I have had at least 3 times I can recall where Carbonite has saved my you-know-what.  One of those times would have been another complete disaster had I not had Carbonite, and the other couple of times would have just been major headaches.  But each time my computer's decided to burp I've been able to go to the Carbonite site and recover the files I've needed with only a couple of clicks - including the time I had to reinstall the entire hard drive's-worth of files.

So do YOU have efficient, reliable, and current (off-site) backups of your data?  If so, congratulations! 

But if not, I encourage you to take a look at Carbonite.  While it's gone up $5 a year since I first started using it (now at $54.95), they've added remote access as an additional included service.  (Remote access means you can access any of your files from another computer should you ever need to.)  But it's still free to give it a try.  And I think $54.95 a year is mighty cheap insurance anyway.  I'm a confirmed fan!

Try Carbonite Online Backup FREE for 15 days and back up your irreplaceable files automatically and securely. No credit card required.

PS:  I expect that I'll probably be upgrading to a new computer within a year or so – and it should be pretty easy to download my files to the new computer and have them return to their same locations where I'm accustomed to finding them.  I'm looking forward to my easiest transition ever.