Our dependency on technology has never been greater. My laptop recently took a hit and like some weird drug addict I could only get an internet fix through my phone or at work. As a result I have lived a strange sort of digital half life, by day a fully interactive public relations professional and by night an off the grid hermit with intermittent Instagram access.
Back up your important files and technology. This lesson isn’t new and has come in many forms as technology has evolved. Important pictures, documents and music have been lost in various ways over the years that have caused me to think ‘never again will I let this happen’.
I thought I was safe, back ups were on my trusty external hard drive from university. I always save, always make copies and ALWAYS back it up. But, this summer I got distracted by life. The pennies that would have gone in to a hard drive update went in to bricks and mortar.
The external hard drive stopped working and so did the one inside my laptop. Double fail. Time’s flown and my back up technology is now over 11 years old and not so trust worthy.
It’s not the end of the world now compared to what it would have been a few years ago but I still lost all my files, a lot of time and money. It was also annoying not being able to access important documents and neglecting this blog.
Thankfully there are a lot of clever computer experts out there who have come to my rescue. I’ve lost a lot, learnt my lesson (again!) and gained a new shiny terabyte of external hard drive.
I’m back and backed up!
Hopefully this blog post is an important reminder to everyone, especially public relations practitioners, who depend on technology in their personal and professional lives. If you’ve put off your back ups make sure you do one soon. Back up your documents, your phone, your music, those pictures of you in Vegas and check that your back ups are still fully functioning. It’s just not worth the heart ache and the hassle.
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