Scientific American presents "Tech Talker" by Quick and Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick and Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies.
I’ve worked in technology for years, and I’ve seen a lot of people experience heartbreak when their computer crashes and they lose their most treasured photos, or that thesis they’ve been working on for the past 6 months. That’s why today’s tip is an important one—and one that you’ll thank me for later. I’m here to tell you the number one way to protect yourself from computer failure: back up your hard drive, which basically means keeping a copy of all of your important stuff in two different places.
Why You Need to Back Up Your Data
My uncle’s computer had just celebrated its 10th birthday. I warned him he needed to start backing up his stuff and so he promptly went to the store and purchased a brand new hard drive. There his purchase sat, collecting dust for months and months. Then one day I received a frantic call from him saying “my computer won’t start!” After a quick inspection, I concluded that his hard drive had finally crashed. Of course, because he had not backed up his computer, he lost hours of family videos, hundreds of financial spreadsheets, and tons of irreplaceable family photos.
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Unfortunately, there are many people out there just like my uncle, and the goal of this podcast is to make sure that you aren’t one of them!
