tranfree issue 21 - 20th November 2000

Do You Practice Safe And Responsible Computing?

by Alex Eames

This article has been prompted by a larger than usual number of translatortips.com clients writing to me along the lines of...

"I bought your eBook back in March and I recently had a computer crash and lost it. Can you please tell me how I can access the files again?"

It would be very tempting to write back and say something like...

"If you bought a book in a bookshop and lost it would you go there asking for another?"

...but I don't treat my clients like that, so I always try to help.

But this does not take away from the fact that...

...if you have important electronic information on your computer, you really owe it to yourself to have some kind of backup facility. Hard disks do...

...crash a lot more often than most people think. Not only that, but sometimes people are forced to reformat their hard disk because of software problems.

I did this myself in February. But before I did it, I made two CD-ROM copies of all my important and irreplaceable files. This included...

• all the raw installation programs of all the software I had downloaded from the web (quite a few)
• all my email database folders
• all work files
• all my client records (accounts, contact details etc)
• all web site files, etc.

After I reformatted the hard disk, the computer worked much, much faster. So much so that I decided to only reinstall new programs as and when I need them.

Half the stuff I had on there has not yet been put back because I haven't needed it. The computer still runs nice and fast

So what's the message here?

It will happen to you one day! The question is...

• When? Today, tomorrow, next week, next year?
• How badly will you suffer as a result of it?

You can minimize the disruption by backing up your files. So, if you bought one of our products, or you have important work that you can't replace...

PLEASE BACK THEM UP NOW!

Yes, backing up is tedious -- I only back up about once every couple of weeks, but even that should save me from a total loss.

Do YOU back up your files?

You do? Great! Where do you keep your backups?

• In the same house as your computer?
• Off-site?

If you keep them in the same place as your computer...

What would happen if your house/office burnt down?

It'd be a pity to lose your house AND your business as a result of the same accident wouldn't it? (I'm assuming most of you work at home).

What d'you mean you can't afford a backup device? If you're in business, can you afford not to have one? I think not!

I'm not going to make specific recommendations for devices here. I tried Iomega tape drives and didn't like them very much -- too slow and a great hassle if you want to retrieve a file. Iomega product support was dreadful too!

Now I use a CD-RW device, which does the job OK. The downside is that it stores all the files as "read-only", so when you copy them back across, you have to reset the file attributes so you can edit the files.

I'd prefer a second hard drive (removable) which would be faster, but I haven't got to that stage yet.

So, get your backup system sorted out today and you won't have any problems.

Alex Eames is the founder of translatortips.com,
editor of tranfree and author of the eBook...

How to Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator
http://www.translatortips.net/ht50.html

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