About a year ago, my MacBook was diagnosed and succumbed to the "Falling Virus". I had years of pictures and iTunes purchases that were lost instantly! I couldn't believe that just a small movement of my taking a magazine out from under my laptop and accidentally dragging the whole thing off the kitchen island had such a devastating outcome....I immediately tried to resuscitate by rebooting and then said a little prayer. Still not willing to accept the fact that it was flat-lined, I rushed it to the Apple store where they told me they would not be able to restore the hard drive and it would cost roughly $1000 to fix the screen which would have to be sent to CA for repair and would take about 8 weeks.. At that point, I realized that my computer would need to be replaced but I was most concerned about the pictures of my late grandmother as well as hundreds of dollars in music and movie purchases from iTunes.
I was sick for days just thinking about why I had not backed up my computer. Everyone always talks about backing up but I do not know ANYONE that has a regular routine of backing up thier data. I mean, wouldn't there be a Blog about it??? The look of surprise and dissapointment started to get on my nerves when everyone I told about the incident asked me if I back up and I would hedge with "not regularly"....Could you imagine if I told them "never"? I seriously would have expected an intervention with my closest friends and family telling me how "My not backing up my data hurts them because...." conversations.
Anyway, things started to get better when I found out that iTunes will give you a one-time download of all things purchased from iTunes for free. Also, I remembered that I had sent a number of albums to Shutterfly.com for printing a while back and nearly every picture I had on my computer and ALL of the pictures of my Grandmother were sent to me on CD-ROM for a $15 charge. I then went to Best Buy and purchased a replacement computer and was all set....I still couldn't sleep.
The problem that kept arising is "How am I going to make sure I don't ever have this happen again?" Ironically, this is the same conversation I have after every breakup.....Conversely, the answer is always much simpler with men since I am usually well aware that it was not going to work for at least a month prior to the big finale. Computers, as it turns out, are a little more complicated. The 3 things I knew I needed in the decision for an effective back up system was: (1) How did I make sure I could back up my data but without any extra work on my part? (Any extra work meant I may not do it or put it off...hence, my current back up system that had just failed me) (2) How do I keep my data safe? (I still wasn't sure of the privacy with off-site back up sites) and (3) What is the potential cost and what is it really worth not having to worry ever again?...this one was easy....YES!!!!
Ergo....Apple's Time Capsule!!!
I have long been attracted to Apple technology and it is true what they say... Once you allow yourself to experience the ease of the technology, you see what you have been missing with IBM technology! I explored some of the other options first and eventually ended up back at the Apple site reading over the specs for the Time Capsule...
"Back up a lifetime's worth of memories with Time Capsule, a wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. It’s also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station with simultaneous dual-band support. Choose from 2TB and 3TB models."
Perfect! It matched all three of my criteria....It backs up automatically every time I open my computer and there is something new that needs to be saved, it is safely secured with a password and hidden in my office, and I am so glad I opened the purse strings for this one....I will never get the looks or the possibility of an intervention ever again.
Not quite sure exactly how much data is in 2 terabytes but I am sure I will have plenty of room to back up wirelessly without even thinking about it until the cows come home. I know that if anything happens and I need to leave my house in a hurry, the first thing I grab will be my dog, Jake and the second thing will be my Time Capsule. Everything else can be replaced!!!!
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