Back up is one of the easiest things you can do for yourself to avoid the stress that follows when you realise you’ve lost that document you just spent hours on or those gorgeous photos of your wee munchkin when they were 2. A good rule of thumb is to have 3, 4 or even 5 back-ups of file storage in different places so if you loose one, get it stolen or it crashes your work is safely stored where you can retrieve it relatively easily. I learnt this lesson the hard way. I thought I was covered with an external hard drive which I used to store all my photos rather than on my computer, it died one day with no warning along with 400 photos.
A good back-up system would be something like an external hard drive, files on a memory stick and/or CD, as well as files stored in the “Clouds” If you’re new to the term cloud computing you’re obviously not taking advantage of a great service that often comes free. Cloud storage put simply is a storage service held on a remote server. Some sites like Box.net offer a free storage for up to 1 GB, open a free account, create your online directory, then upload those important files. Box.net also gives you the ability to collaborate with others which is great if you have a joint project at hand or are happy to share your resources. There’s also a whole host of applications you can add to your account which for example gives you the tools to be able to edit your files on the go or from your phone. If you require more than the 1GB storage you can upgrade for a reasonable fee, and at last you get have your head in the clouds.
Cloud storage is a good safeguard if you have to give a presentation or a lesson and you’ve left your memory stick at home, provided you remember to upload your latest versions you’ll always be well prepared.