Why to Back Up Your Hard Drive

Keep Backups in a Safe Place

Whatever the cost, it pays to back up your hard drive.

(Getty Images)

Data backup services have proliferated online. They charge monthly subscription fees or have upfront costs, but they are convenient.

Alternatively, you can copy your data onto a backup drive, discs or a flash drive, but it's important to be consistent, and it's also a good idea to keep the backups in a safe place, separate from your computer.

Frank Reilly was working as a computer consultant for a recycling company and, on the second day there, he tripped over the machine that stored most of the firm's accounting data.

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"Next thing I knew sparks were flying out of the box's power supply and people were screaming about lost work," he said.

He asked the office manager how they backed up their data, and says he got a blank stare.

Unlike most of us, he knew how to get data out of a damaged machine, he says, but it took him all night.

By the way, Duncan and Krystal, whose story we told at the beginning of this piece, are still very much together -- but they've had other computer woes. Duncan says Krystal's laptop was stolen two weeks before she was supposed to get her degree, and in it was most of her school work.

"She was supposed to graduate in June," he said. "Now, she'll graduate in September."