Backup, Backup, Backup!

As a budding photographer (okay, I may be taking that too far, let's just say a new camera owner) and parent I take my fair share of pictures. When my son was born the photos were flying and I can't remember how many were taken of him. I kept everything on the computer that I shared with my husband (I didn't use it often because I had access to a laptop at work). When I finally purchased my own computer he copied the images and gave them to me. This was very lucky because within four months of purchasing my iMac the hard drive died. I KNOW! (I have to admit my love affair with Apple almost died that day but it was soon rekindled).

All of my photos, my documents, everything was lost. Since my machine was still under warranty I was able to have it fixed free of charge but when I inquired about recovering the info the pricing was way above what I thought was reasonable. So with a wistful farewell, I left my computer in the hands of the genius lab at the Apple Store.

And what lesson did I learn? Back everything up! For many months I have stored things online but I must admit that I am not sure how that actually works. When I went to retrieve documents remotely I had difficulty. I could have called customer service but I just let it ride. For a year now I have been riding, hoping for the best. Lucky for me nothing terrible has transpired. I've repeatedly said I need an external hard drive but am/was too lazy to go purchase one.

Imagine my happiness when I was contacted by Seagate to try out their external hard drive. I am using the FreeAgent Go for Mac with 500GB (retail: $149.99) I can save photos, pictures, music and more on this little baby. And it is small enough to carry in my pocketbook. Yes, if I had a macbook I could also take my hard drive along and share info. Nice touch! It perfectly compliments my iMac and is totally unobtrusive. I keep it in the docking station and it blends in perfectly.

It was quick and easy to install however the instructions were a bit limited. I still haven't figured out how to save photos directly from iPhoto to the hard drive but I have been able to do this with my Nikon software.

For now, I am using the hard drive to back up my entire system. When I originally set it up I just did it that way but I am not sure if I am able to go back and perhaps simply use it for photos. Nonetheless, I am happy with my external hard drive and have piece of mind that my precious moments are safely stored in the event of a problem with my desktop.

Please learn from my mistake and if you don't already have an external hard drive get one.