So the 31st of March is "World Backup Day":
http://www.worldbackupday.com/The problem with promotional events like this is that they usually fail to reach the exact people who need to learn. How do we go about preaching to the unconverted? I mean, preaching
effectively so they'll actually take it seriously?
As the go-to IT resource for friends and relatives, is there anyone you might want to make an extra effort with?
I'll be visiting my mum in a couple of weeks, and now they finally have broadband I'll be setting up their photos to backup to their Google drive. She is very good though, kind of. She "backs up" important emails already... onto A4 paper. Don't laugh, it works for her!
I know most of you on 404 are responsible with your precious data, well aware that hard disks and flash drives will always fail eventually. Most of you do take advantage of cloud storage and multiple backups, on and off site. Some of you even have little mantras, Dave.
However, we probably all know people who have desperately asked for help when a years worth of project data was lost to a single device failure. People who think "backup" means moving all their photos onto a single external hard disk, or just won't accept that things ever go wrong - until it's too late.
These people could probably use a little help.
Most modern operating systems come with backup mechanisms included. Windows makes it very easy, and even nags you if it's not set up by displaying a warning in the notification area. However, it does require setting up and you need something to back up to.
A lot of portable devices do it automatically to cloud accounts, be that Google, Apple or Microsoft. Even my WebOS tablet came with a box.net account. However, that isn't ubiquitous on the desktop and sometimes the free storage may be insufficient. A home server is not something many would consider, but large USB drives are fairly cheap these days.
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