I’m sure you bought a USB stick or portable harddisk with the best intentions in the world but how often do you actually backup irreplaceable files? How would you feel if those wedding pictures disappeared in a puff of smoke?
That’s why I consider online backup a must-have. I only recommend two services and the one at the top of my list is PutPlace. This low-cost solution by an Irish company is simple to set-up and then you just forget about it. All of your important files are kept safe on Amazon’s amazing storage system S3 and you can recover what you need with a few clicks.
The important thing about PutPlace is that it for consumers. So whilst HP gives up and shutters Upline, PutPlace goes from strength to strength.
Backup is boring but the day you lose those files is the day you wish you’d signed up for PutPlace. My buddy Joe, the founder, will even give you 3 months free. Just use the discount code “joe”!
March 1, 2009 at 3:45 am
you could just buy another hard drive that you save stuff to and then keep it in a safe spot. Whatever about this trend to have everything done by a web service at the end of the day your stuff will still be stored on a hard drive so it might as well be your own.
March 1, 2009 at 7:50 am
Data on S3 is stored on multiple geographically distributed RAID storage systems. PutPlace automatically backs up anything to S3 that changes on your important directories. And you think that’s the same as making a copy and keeping it in a “safe spot”? Funny.
March 4, 2009 at 3:08 pm
you could just print out the contents of your hard drive every evening and burn the previous evenings back up in your log burner. That way you’d be saving on ever increasing energy bills, whilst going insane at the same time.
March 4, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Ah but you forgot to store at least one copy safely in the log-shed for the rats to chew on.
March 4, 2009 at 3:17 pm
The cheapest and most reliable solution to data back up is to simply develop a photographic memory. That way shoud important documents get lost they can simply be retrieved from Mother Natures computer and retyped. If old photo files get lost, simply get the people back to recreate the scene and take the picture again.
Forget silly suggestions from “Frank” above. There’s a stupid made up name if ever I heard one.
March 4, 2009 at 3:19 pm
This could be far more enjoyable, particularly for those “private” photos which you need to re-create.
March 4, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I don’t trust computers or any other electronic devices for storing my pics any more. I just print them out, laminate them and put them on my cell wall.
March 4, 2009 at 3:38 pm
All of the contributors so far have missed the point.
You can quite easily avoid the need for backing up data in the first place by not talking to anyone, going nowhere and eating your bodyweight in garlic every day.
March 4, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Wow, what a great best practice sharing post.
I use a combination of technologies to safeguard my pictures. Every month I simply set all of my pictures to play in “screenshow” and then use a collection of polaroid cameras to take photos of each picture as they appear.
You can even make the occasion fun by inviting your friends around and giving them all a camera and then take turns taking the pictures whilst drunk and in the nude.
March 4, 2009 at 4:12 pm
“”How would you feel if those wedding pictures disappeared in a puff of smoke?”"
Great actually.
I’ve already done it. I set them on fire myself.
Good riddance to the adulterous bitch I say!! Imagine if I’d got them backed up in cyberspace?? I’d be haunted by the evil philandering cow forever.
March 4, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Back up my arse I say!
Although put it like that, sounds nice.
March 6, 2009 at 1:47 pm
This all sounds very well but I’d be worried about Amazon managing my documents and photos.
What if they sent me the new Maeve Binchy when I tried to retrieve the pictures from my cousins circumcision party? or vice versa?
This obviously hasn’t been thought through well enough…
March 6, 2009 at 2:34 pm
BRING BACK PAPYRUS!!
You can still read papyrus from thousands of years ago but in a few decades there won’t be any way of remembering anything at all whatsoever.
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt.
The word for the material papyrus is also used to designate documents written on sheets of it, often rolled up into scrolls. The plural for such documents is papyri. Historical papyri are given identifying names—generally the name of the discoverer, first owner or institution where it is kept—and numbered, such as “Papyrus Bertie Wooster Shed I”. Often an abbreviated form is used such as “pbwoostershed I”.
Papyrus is still used by communities living in the vicinity of swamps, to the extent that rural householders derive up to 75% of their income from swamp goods. Particularly in East and Central Africa, people harvest papyrus, which is used to manufacture items that are sold or used locally. Examples include baskets, hats, fish traps, trays or winnowing mats and floor mats. Papyrus is also used to make roofs, ceilings, rope and fences, or to wipe the arse.
March 11, 2009 at 9:21 am
I hope you’ve put a little papyrus symbol on all your emails in case people try to print directly to it. Think of the Nile wetlands Stella.