Some of us never do it but we all mean to - back up our files.
For some unknown reason a few weeks ago I bought an external hard drive - maybe because my hard drive was filling up with images.
Last Monday my system crashed for no reason at all and I had to re install windows,a long terrifying job for a guy who is not over computer savvy.
Reloading programmes was a total time consuming pain as well as realising all the other junk we accumulate that we rarely use but need,like QuickTime player and acrobat etc.
Then of course if you haven't noted things like  e mail addresses and passwords etc then you face another dilemma
I had already put all my images onto the external drive but if I had not I would of lost several years of work,and not just the images but the travelling and walking involved in getting them.
So guys and gals be warned - it can happen - if you haven't backed up your images and important files DO IT.

Or better still get RAID1 configuration of disks, most people, including me, think it will be OK I'll back it up tomorrow.  For ultimate performance mirror 2 RAID5 configurations.

The back up software supplied with windows is lacking somewhat to say the least which makes it harder for people. To back up onto an independent external drive this software is well regarded.

www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html

The software mentioned looks  efficient and I should backup the works, not just my image files. I have one added harddrive and last night ordered another..the idea was to allow the first to provide added storage space besides the drive on my pc and the second one is for total backup.  Doesn't seem like a bad idea.

A tech was at our business trying to restore a crashed pc(physical damage as in harddrive) and suggested "spring cleaning" to restore performance.  What he means is to reinstall the os about once every 6 mos or so.  Still, there is the chore of reconfiguring networks, reinstall of some programs, settings and stuff not to mention os service packs.

Richard, my pc is raid capable but I don't have the computer savvy to put in the other drives and configure that stuff.

Always do, in more ways than one! Take today,  took more than 250 shots, backed up on laptop while on the shoot!

If you care enough for your images, personal  stuff, you will :)

I'm completely loaded with external HDs - got 6 of them and a little teeny 60GB portable jobbie to shuttle images back and forth from the warehouse to home if I wanna work on them here.

As soon as you finish a shoot, back those images up on something other than your everyday computer! When THAT drive fills up, buy another!

I've had ONE HD die on me, and it had a LOT of commercial work on it - $847 later (from a data retrieval company) and I had most of it back - now I back things up as soon as I'm done shooting them - you're right - you can never be too careful.
-Lew ;-)

Quote - A tech was at our business trying to restore a crashed pc(physical damage as in harddrive) and suggested "spring cleaning" to restore performance.  What he means is to reinstall the os about once every 6 mos or so.  Still, there is the chore of reconfiguring networks, reinstall of some programs, settings and stuff not to mention os service packs.

One tip I can give is to do a fresh install of your OS, then install all the software you wish to use. afterwards do a complete image backup using something like acronis to make a image of your fresh install. Then when it comes to re-installing everything use the image. Hey presto! all the software is also installed too. Save a lot of time.

Oh and for people who use external drives, turn them off when not in use. The exceedingly high temps and constant running of external drives (MS windows turns off idle internal drives after a set amount of time) can cut their lifespan into a quarter of its normal.

swift_wrath, thanks for these tips.  I only plug in the external when actually using it, so I got that part right without knowing why. Good tip on the install and backup. Thanks.      TomDArt