Don't Be That Fool!

Backup Reminder

A Laughing Fool. Netherlandish oil painting
(possibly Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen) ca. 1500.
[Public Domain Image.]

Even though it is April Fools' Day, don't you be that fool. Take the time today to back up all your valuable, and in some cases, irreplaceable genealogy and family history data.

A few possible ways to make copies of your electronic information include:

• copying to cloud storage such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iDrive, Dropbox, etc.
• synchronizing to an offsite backup provider like Carbonite, Backblaze, CrashPlan, Mozy, etc.
• backing up to an external hard disk
• copying to USB Memory sticks

If possible, ensure that one of your backup processes¹ includes sending the information to someone outside of your home just in case the disaster that leads you to need to recover the data also damaged your home or place of business. This could be as simple as making a copy on a USB stick and giving it to a friend or family member.

Don't forget to make sure that you test out the process you use to restore that information from your backup. It doesn't help you if you have a backup and no way to get the data back to your computer.

As for those that do all their work on paper, what is your backup plan? Have you photocopied all of your work and given it to someone outside of your home?

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1. Yes, processes. You should be using at least 2 different types of backups with preferably at least one stored offsite.