data

Automatically Backup Your Files Offsite (BackBlaze, CrashPlan, MyPCBackup, Mozy, iDrive)

 

Today we rely on our laptops, desktops, and handheld digital devices more so than any other time in history. Accidents and unforeseen system failures are inevitable, which requires the need for a reliable automatic online backup system to protect our documents, music files, images, and all other forms of personal and professional data to be stored in an offsite location for instant retrieval.

Any form of digital device with a hard drive has the potential to become corrupted or to begin to fail. For those without an efficient file recovery system in place, what usually follows is chaos, panic, and fear. Luckily, we now have several options available that provide significant protection against these types of unanticipated circumstances. BackBlaze, CrashPlan, MyPCBackup, Mozy, and iDrive are examples of these types of offsite file storage systems that offer a wide range of special features and benefits.

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Data Loss Prevention Tips. Stop Being a Firefighter!

I have observed that many people take technology for granted. They expect it to simply work when they need it and they become shocked when something goes wrong. One of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to lose data (precious memories in the form of photos or videos, notes/plans, school or business work, client lists, accounting information, contacts, etc). Just like I encourage corporations to do fireproofing versus firefighting, the same goes for everyone in their personal everyday lives. Here is a very basic list to help prevent data loss (which can also occur due to data corruption).

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Convert, Rename, and Resize Many Photos All At Once! Easier to Upload, Share, and Email!

Cameras are taking photos with increasing amazing resolutions. This means the megapixels keep growing and growing. Fortunately, you can crop small portions of your photos and still print them with clarity. Unfortunately, this means the photos are becoming very large and unwieldy in size.

These growing file sizes are causing issues in all sorts of areas, the most important being backups. They also cause issues with manipulating and transferring those files.

Many people have online photo albums either on Facebook, Flickr, Google+, or digital scrapbooks they’ve created. Photo galleries are becoming popular on many corporate websites. Photos help sales when listing products on eBay or Kijiji. Emailing batches of trip or family photos to your relatives is common.

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How Can I Preserve My Digital Memories (Photos, Movies, Music)

Think about the growing data space demands we have at our own homes. Precious memories are now stored digitally. We have smart devices and cameras taking videos which are commonly now all high definition (HD) resulting in very large data files. They are in different file formats. We have also larger and larger megapixel photos being taken by cameras and smart phones. We purchase digital copies of movies now instead of optical discs (DVDs). Our music is now all digital as well, no more discs (CDs). This results in huge amounts of data that now needs to be stored at your home. Most people have not given any thought to how valuable this data is and what would happen if it was lost.

I have personally been contacted by many concerned people who have lost all of their irreplaceable pictures. Recently someone took many pictures at their daughter’s wedding and left all of the pictures on the camera’s memory card. They took that memory card into Walmart to get some prints made directly off the memory card. A few months later they went to access the card again from their computer and the card could not be read. They had not made any copies of all the electronic photo files… all was gone. We sent the card to a data recovery business and unfortunately nothing was recoverable. They were devastated!

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