OK, each week there comes a time when I’m staring at my keyboard, deciding what topic I’m going to tackle in this week’s blog. I can get political (but fight it off as much as humanly possible) or observational or practical. I’m choosing option C.

And it comes from recent experience. You see, a couple of weeks ago, my computer began making a beeping noise. At first, when it was booting up and eventually, on random occasions. I went online and looked at Yelp reviews about where I could take it for an exam. I don’t know if you saw the story about Best Buy’s Geek Squad, but apparently, some of the computers they were given made their way to the F.B.I..  Not that I have any great secrets I’m hiding, but I decided to look for a local tech geek.

It turns out I had a failing hard drive. Living a rather precise life without room for things like failing hard drives, I asked a local computer repair shop to replace the drive. Now, that gives me a new, faster drive. But what about all the programs that were installed?  Well, first, I had to ask my backup company (backblaze.com) to send me a hard drive with all my important files on it. Then, I had to reinstall all the programs. Basically, I lost a week, but still managed to get everything out I do in a “normal” week thanks to having the backup service and having a dependable laptop to rely on.

The point of this week’s ramblings is this–you need a backup plan. Hard drives fail and usually at the most inopportune time. An unsolicited plug for BackBlaze–there are others and I just chose this one, but it constantly backs up where your computer is, 24-hours-a-day, online. Should it crash on a Tuesday, you can order a hard drive backup copy of your C-drive the day before it crashed and get everything back. Photos, files, projects, they’re all there.

Now the reason I felt strongly compelled to touch on this subject this week is because I had a recent hard drive fail. That’s when you need a backup system and your turn is coming. I mentioned BackBlaze, but here’s the deal (as my brother-in-law Kris likes to say): If you have Comcast Cable or most of the other major companies, they offer a free Virus protection.  Log on to your Internet provider account, go to support and search for Norton.

In the case of Comcast, they GIVE you the $160 package of virus protection AND backup. So, you’re just a download away from having everything you have on your computer backed up, for free.

Seriously, reach out to me if you have questions, because just knowing that all those photos, documents and files are backed up “just in case” is incredible peace of mind.

You’re welcome. Now get back out there!

Tim Hunter