Thanks to a readers tip I decided to try turning on my dead laptop the other day, and it worked!
It behaves a little strangely, but having the opportunity to go back and save the files I almost lost is pretty cool. Those files include a ton of music that iTunes would not have let me restore from their end, AND a bunch of pictures from vacations and such.
Some people choose to backup pictures on external hard drives. And while that can be a good idea, it doesn’t save you from a fire. That’s why I like to find places to store files online.
Thanks to Aaron Brandon, I discovered that Google Docs also allows you to upload up to 1GB of storage. So I’m putting my pictures up there for now.
And an AWESOME service called DropBox gives you 2GB of free storage, and I’ll be uploading all of my music there.
But that’s only half the story of DropBox. The service creates a folder inside your “Documents” folder on your PC, and any files you put inside are automatically backed up online as well.
You can open and edit these files just like they were inside any other folder on your computer… but they’re automatically saved to the ‘net as well.
Perfect. This is much simpler than even an automatic backup service, and makes switching from one computer to another for projects very easy.
I love it.
Hey Stephen,
I’m glad my Google Docs suggestion was helpful. I saw your “You Really Trying To Live The Internet Lifestyle?” blog entry after I posted mine. I thought it was funny that we both mentioned cloud computing in our articles. I guess it goes to show how popular it’s becoming and how helpful it can actually be… especially to us internet business people.
Over a year or so a go I lost a lot of stuff on my computer. I was using an SD card to store my files on. I thought because it wasn’t a spinning disk of some sort it would be safer. I was wrong! My computer must have had some sort of power surge. Some files could be saved, but most were F’ed up beyond belief. Most people don’t really care or listen to our stories and take action to correct their bad habits until it happens to others themselves. Then they slap themselves for being stupid. Hopefully we help some people with our horror stories. =)
-Aaron
Great to know info. Thanks to you, Stephen.