One of the most common things we hear in the computer repair shop that I work part-time in is that the computer has crashed, and could we please make sure to get the data off of the hard drive before we re-install windows. And, the first question we always ask is, “do you have your data backed up?” I probably don’t have to tell you what the common answer is to that question.
Many computer users assume that backing up their data is expensive. We see advertisements for services that cost $40-$50 a month, and for external hard drive solutions that are several hundred dollars. But, keeping your data safe, doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, I’ve got all my important data backed up, and I spend less than $50 a year. It’s not because I have some inside information, or get favors from tech companies. You can do it too. And, if you value your data at all, you should.
This is the set-up I currently use.
Picture Backup
Pictures are one of the top two things that people are concerned about losing when they bring their computers in. Unfortunately, pictures are also the largest files that you’ll likely have to backup and store. If you take a lot, you can have Gigabytes of pictures that will need to be backed up. In my set-up, I pay for a full membership to photo sharing site, Flickr. It’s about $26 a year, and allows for unlimited uploading to the site. The pictures are then stored on Flickr’s server, and I can get to them whenever I want. I should note that this isn’t the most elegant solution, as I would have to download the images one-by-one if I wanted to restore them to my local PC. I’ll go over some more efficient services at the end, but you’ll likely have to spend more money to use them. (See note below: 4/15/13)
Data Backup
For any files that are important, besides pictures, I use a service called Dropbox. Their basic plan is free, but limits you to 2GB of data storage. Because I backup my photos elsewhere, I’m able to store everything else that is important with them, and keep the free account. After several years of using it, I am getting close to the 2GB max, so I may have to upgrade to the next plan up soon. The first paid plan allows for 50GB, and is only $9.99 a month, so I don’t think I’d ever have to go above that plan. I should also note, here, that if you have a very large music collection on your computer that you’d like to backup, you’ll likely have to look at a paid plan. (See note below: 4/15/13)
Other options for data backup
There are several other options that you could use for data backup. The aforementioned external hard drives can be super easy to use. One drawback to using one, however, is that the data is still physically located in the same place as the PC you’re backing up. That’s fine if you only need to restore because of PC failure, but can be a disaster if you have to restore due to something like a fire or flood. Ideally, external hard drives that are used for PC backup should be placed in an off-site location, but since that’s a bit cumbersome and likely to keep you from actually backing up your data, they should be at least placed in a fire-proof safe when not in use.
Another, more ideal way to back your data up, is through a service like Dropbox. There are a few others that are specifically designed and marketed as data backup services. Carbonite is probably the most well-known of them, but there is also CrashPlan, and Mozy that do the same job. Carbonite and CrashPlan come in at $59 a year (about $4 a month), while Mozy comes in at $5.99 a month. Crashplan has a free plan, but it requires you to have your own server to back up to. This can work out if you have a second computer at another location or have a friend that you trust with your data. They’ve also got a plan that’s $33 a year, but it limits you to 10GB total storage.
Not backing up your data can be an expensive mistake to make. Not only can it cost you a lot of money ($100 or more) to get your computer fixed, but you could lose all of your valuable data. Save yourself the money of having it recovered, and save yourself from losing years of photos and information; get a data backup plan.
Update 4/15/13:
One of the nice things about a disaster recovery backup plan is that you usually don’t have to use it. More often than not, our computers run on and on until we replace them and we transfer the data to the next machine. Earlier this week, I had to put my set up to the test. My main storage hard drive crashed. While I tried to recover the data from it, it was lost. With a newly formatted hard drive, I was able to reinstall Dropbox and as soon as it was done syncing, I had all the data that was in Dropbox back on my PC. The Flickr photo backup was a little bit more cumbersome. There are several apps out there that you can run that will allow you to download all of your pictures one after the other. I ended up using one called Flump. It worked, but the pictures are in one heck of a mess. None of them have any names, and the structure I had before is lost. So, I’ve got 7000+ pictures to sort through. Moving forward, I’ll be adding one of the above back up services (Crashplan or Carbonite) to my PC to back up my file structure and other assorted things. For the $59 a year it costs, it’s worth the added convenience of not having to deal with the sorting of files and individual applications.
Do you backup your data? What do you use for your data backup plan?
Shane Ede is a business teacher and personal finance blogger. He holds dual Bachelors degrees in education and computer sciences, as well as a Masters Degree in educational technology. Shane is passionate about personal finance, literacy and helping others master their money. When he isn’t enjoying live music, Shane likes spending time with family, barbeque and meteorology.
Holiday shopping is in full swing now, and you may be feeling the financial pressure. Shane recently quit his job and is working on a tight holiday budget. My husband and I are in the midst of being gazelle intense, so we don’t have much extra money for gifts. Yet even though we don’t have much money to spend this holiday season, I feel great about what we are giving because we are not overspending. We can truly afford what we are giving. Instead of overspending, we are empowering ourselves by spending exactly what we are able to spend. Follow these tips to rein in your holiday purchases this season:
-Freeze the credit cards.
Literally. Put them in water and freeze them. Better yet, put them in peanut butter as we did. Vow not to use your credit cards this month. There is nothing worse than opening your credit card statement and staring at the large number you now owe. The presents have been opened, the holiday is over, but you still owe for the holidays. If, instead, you put the credit cards away, you have nothing to dread come January.
-Set a budget and fund it with cash.
Determine exactly how much you have to spend and withdraw that money from your bank account. Pay for every purchase with cash. Feel the pain as you part from the cash. Acknowledge what you are spending, and feel empowered that you are sticking to your budget. If you want to shop online, get a debit card. Just avoid using credit cards.
-Shop the bargains
There will be plenty of deals to come this holiday season. Stay focused on the deals and only buy items you can get on sale. Take advantage of buy one get one free sales such as buy one toy of a certain brand, get the second toy from the same brand free.
-Buy sets
For children, especially young children, buy toys that come in sets such as a baby doll with a stroller and a high chair. Take those out of the package and break them into three different presents for the price you paid for the bundled gift.
-Look in unconventional locations
My children get presents from Santa and from me and my husband. Since they were little, the toys that get from us are often gently used. I shop garage sales throughout the summer and hide gifts away. This year my three year old will get a new in the box baby doll that I picked up at a garage sale for $3. My son will get a wooden box with five different games in it that I found at a garage sale for $5.
Obviously you may not have time to go to (or even find) garage sales now, but you can shop children’s resale stores for quality toys at a steep discount.
They say ‘tis better to give than to receive, and that is true more so when what you give is what you can afford. Why not enjoy watching your family open their presents this Christmas without worrying where the money will come to pay for everything in January. It is possible. Beating Broke and I are both proof of that.
Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.
With the recent changes in my employment, it’s become pretty darn important for us to not only keep to our budget, but to reduce our budget as much as we can in order to keep from sending our finances into the whirlpool of red ink that is broke.
One of the ways that we’ve got to cut back, because of the time of year, is in our Christmas present shopping. We’ve already come to the agreement with our extended family that we wouldn’t be exchanging presents with them. However, with the wonderful consumerism myth that is Santa Claus, it’s a bit more difficult to completely cut off the kids from any presents whatsoever. With that in mind, we decided that we’d still be getting the kids a few things, but would have to take advantage of as many great deals and coupons as we possibly could. And, you all know what that means.
As a general rule, I avoid the masses of people that throng to the Black Friday specials. I don’t have the patience for all those people rushing around the aisles, searching for that one last electronic door buster special, or digging through the mountain of cheap DVDs in the middle of the aisle. But, when you’ve got to save some money, sometimes you’ve gotta take a few risks. 😉 Late Thursday night, after all the turkey had been eaten, we went through the flyers for the stores and decided on a few things that we should pick up to give to the kids.
Luckily, for us, our kids are still young enough that they are satisfied more by quantity, than by amount, so it’s easy for us to buy a few bundled items and pack them individually and still come away with as much present opening satisfaction as we would have otherwise.
We took the tips that I wrote a week or so ago, and put them to good use. We went into the day with a detailed idea of what it was we were looking for, and where we were looking for it. We had a list of what we wanted to get, and a budget to spend on that list. If the stores were out of something, we didn’t substitute with the similar, more expensive, item that was conveniently set up next to the empty shelves.
And, we conquered Black Friday. We stuck to our list, only buying one extra item. We not only kept to our budget, but we beat it! When we were done with our busy morning of shopping, we had everything on our list, and we’d spent less than $150! Christmas will be a little lighter under the tree than it has been in previous years, but I’m pretty sure the kids will be happy with it, and we’ll all have a great time, like usual.
Now, we just have to avoid the impulse purchases that will come today in all the Cyber Monday emails and ads, and we’ll be all set. 😉 But, we conquered Black Friday, and that’s something!
How did you all do this Black Friday? Did you go out and shop with the masses? Did you stay home and polish off the turkey leftovers?
Shane Ede is a business teacher and personal finance blogger. He holds dual Bachelors degrees in education and computer sciences, as well as a Masters Degree in educational technology. Shane is passionate about personal finance, literacy and helping others master their money. When he isn’t enjoying live music, Shane likes spending time with family, barbeque and meteorology.
