Let me ask you two simple questions;
Lets say right now your computer’s hard drive died and was inaccessible.  Do you have a copy of your data? (by data I mean photos, documents and other content you have either created or purchased.)

Let say you answered yes to the first question, yes you have backed your data up to either another hard drive, another computer or to removable media.  Very good.

Second question – Where are those backups? If you answered "Right beside my computer" then what would you do if you came home to find a disaster had destroyed your residence and all the items inside, including your backups?  I have you attention now? Good.

Backups provide two purposes, recovery of your data in the event of a hardware problem with your computer and the event of a disaster in your working environment.

Larger companies have known this for a long time and have backups go to an offsite location. Depending on the importance of the data and how long it can be unavailable there may also be data mirroring to a remote site. In the event of a problem. The data at the remote site is immediately available.

Most home users do not have to go to this level but with the price of modern large media dropping you can protect your data from both occurrences.

What I am going to describe today is one of many methods that you can do to backup your data.  This is IMHO the easiest and quickest way to protect yourself without much friction.  The less friction there is in a task, the more likely you will do it.

Step 1. Backup your data.

If you not doing that then give yourself a slap on the wrist and thank your lucky stars that you have not lost any data (I hope).

A. Go to your favorite hardware supplier and get yourself a USB or SATA portable hard drive. Get one at least as large as your computer’s hard drive but preferably larger. If you have multiple computers then get one that can back them all up.

B. Download a copy of Syncback a great sync and backup tool. It was originally written to synchronize data between portable USB keys and computers but also makes an ideal and simple backup tool.

Plug the portable hard drive into your computer. After a few moments it will assign a drive letter, (Typically E:, F: etc) make note of what drive letter it is. In some cases you may have to format the portable drive.

Install Syncback. and setup a backup job that takes your entire hard drive and backs it up to the portable drive. Run this job and make sure it works.  You can then schedule this on a nightly basis and/or run it manually anytime you want. For example anytime I import a large number of photo’s I will immediately back up those files.

Step 2. Get your data out of the house.

Congratulations on backing up your data. Now it’s time to take it to the next level.  Protecting your data from a disaster that destroys your residence and your computer.  Take your portable hard drive and take it a difference physical but trusted location.  I take mine to work but anywhere removed form the location of the original data works.

Depending how often your data changes you may want to buy a second portable hard drive and rotate the drives back and forth from the remote location. In my case since I take quite a few photos in a week I tend to rotate the drives back and forth several times a week. You have to decide what works for you.

In the end this is a simple but foolproof system to protect your data. There are some more advanced backup techniques to involve a faster rebuild of a dead system but that in a topic for another time.

We stayed at the Marriott Downtown Eaton Center hotel on our arrival we mentioned that we were here for our 5th wedding anniversary Later on we answered a knock the door to find a bottle of wine and a card signed by the staff on duty.  A very small touch but very memorable I would have highly recommended the Marriott before but this just reinforces it. We have found all the staff very pleasant and they seen to enjoy dogin their jobs.

The other case showcases a company who does not get it vs one that does which occurred one evening at the Eaton Center.  I was looking for a jacket and we happened to be in Sears first.  Once we found the Men’s department we did not see any staff member around, what we did hear was a very annoying chirp from several of the security tags on some of the apparel.  After about 10 min of looking around and (rather surprising) no staff members came to take care of the alarms (or us) we left.

We then went to the Bay and once in the Men’s section a member of staff came over and asked if we needed assistance. From there a very pleasant interaction occurred.  Ultimately in the end they did not have the size I was looking for but the staff member did make some suggestions for alternate stores.  A very positive experience.  As a coincidence one of the national papers had a story about the bay and it’s change in ownership and some of the changes that are taking place.  We saw some of the in the changes to to the flagship store in downtown Toronto. If this trends includes the stores in smaller centers the Bay will become a option again.

It goes to show that the little things can make all the difference sometimes.

All of these will make you think.

Michael Pritchard’s water filter turns filthy water drinkable

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html

Eric Giler demos wireless electricity

http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html

Cary Fowler: One seed at a time, protecting the future of food

http://www.ted.com/talks/cary_fowler_one_seed_at_a_time_protecting_the_future_of_food.html

Bailout Costs vs Big Historical Events

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/06/bailout-costs-vs-big-historical-events/

The book presents these situations in a very light and easygoing manner, people of faith and those who are no, can find useful insight in these observation that the books main character “Jones” passes on to the various residents of Orange Beach.

I found the book most enlightening and at times I could not put it down as I wanted to find out what advice “Jones” was going to present. In many cases the advice given is very straightforward but in the hustle and bustle of the modern world we have forgotten about this simple lessons in life.

A very inspirational read from Andy Andrews.

Well worth the trip but next time I’ll get a macro lens.