Think for a second… You’ve spent around 20 months pouring your heart into developing an online business diligently grafting for all the hours under the sun. You’ve created countless eBooks, viral reports, videos for your blog and membership area.
You’ve got hundreds of images that you’ve saved for your blog posts.
Furthermore as an Internet Marketer, you’ve probably got dozens of Internet Marketing products that you’ve studied or even yet to study.
Imagine for a second all the blood and guts you’ve poured into your online business. I mean… you’ve poured your heart and soul into building this operation. You’ve provided a tonne of value to your blog readers, list subscribers and customers. And then… all of a sudden…
Whoosh! Gone!
That means everything that you’ve got on your hard drive!
Yes, I am speaking from a recent bitter experience I’ve had with my Internet business and to be honest, I was scared! I was scared that all the hours of effort that I’d poured into my Internet business had gone to waste. I was scared that I was no further along in my Internet business than I was many months ago.
So, you might be asking what happened?
Well… my hard drive on my laptop had basically crashed… and it’s no cheap machine either. It’s a top spec Sony VAIO laptop with 640GB HDD, 4GB of RAM and over 2Ghz in processing speed, so a pretty powerful unit. My laptop is over 2 years old now, so there are more impressive top spec machines on the market now.
I was working on my blog when suddenly I saw the dreaded blue screen of death. I was horrified as I recognised the blue screen, however I was also quietly optimistic that I would be able to recover the data since I know you can recover data without necessarily getting to Windows. Yes, sadly I am still using a PC. At the moment, it would just be too much effort to change everything over to a Mac, although that will happen at some point in the near future. ;-)
I attempted to reboot my PC normally and in safe mode but it simply wouldn’t play ball. I was not happy and was actually fearful that I had lost my data forever.
My Mistakes
My mistake was most likely the same mistake as what you’re making right now as you read these very words.
My mistake was not to have a backup process which backed up all of my important business data. You should remember that the data on your laptop is a very valuable business asset to you and you should protect it as such.
My ‘Reasons’
I would usually have excuses for not backing up my computer and they would all sound very reasonable.
It takes a long time to back up my computer and that time is better spent on:
- Writing blog posts
- Driving Traffic
- Creating products
- Finding affiliate promotions
- Masterminding with others
My Findings
After taking my laptop to a local PC shop, they told me that they would not be able to recover the data, however there was a possibility of the data being recovered by a data recovery specialist.
At the store, the data recovery would have cost £45 and obviously the inconvenience, loss of traffic and everything else associated without having your fundamental business tool for several days. However since I had to take it to a specialist, I was going to be charged around £380 + VAT (£456) for the recovery and then I would still need to replace the hard disks at a further cost of £120.
So I ended up paying for all that to be repaired and bought a solution which would mean that my business is being constantly backed up and protected against hard drive failures.
The Solution Going Forward
After learning the lessons of backing up my data the painful way, I now have a solution which is maintained for me on complete autopilot, however before the crash, I could have easily thought that my cash would have been better invested into software, information products or outsourcing to move my business forward.
In hindsight, I should have given consideration and put in place appropriate precautions to protect and preserve the business asset that I had already built.
The Product
OK, so you’re wondering now what the product that I’m using for my solution going forward is. It’s an external hard drive that has software on it that you have control over when it backs up your data. The software even allows you to make changes to a file on your laptop’s hard drive and when you save the file, the save is mirrored on your external hard drive, so you will always have two copies of everything you save.
This makes it totally handsfree and it certainly gives you peace of mind that your business is being protected and that all the hard work you’ve put in is not going to waste down the pan.
Takeaways
If you’ve read this far, you will probably be thinking that you should make a backup of your hard drive at some point – perhaps when you get around to it. Perhaps you’ll do it once you’ve done this or that?
No… you need to get this system in place immediately. Once it’s done, you can literally set it and forget it and then you can focus your mind on content creation and growing your business safe in the knowledge that the information you have invested time, energy, money and effort in is safe and sound.
After all, what’s the point in building an information marketing business with no information?
Please do it now!
What are your experiences with data losses? Hopefully, you’re committed to learning from my mistakes and get it sorted now. Let us know in the comments below.
To Your Online Success,
The Profit Share
The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)
Ahh, Wayne – I am so sorry to hear that! Definitely beats my hosting complaints, hands down….
One consolation in all of this, if there’s one, it’s the fact that you were able to get it back and now know better.
I am on Mac and they have a simple external solutions to backing up your computer – you just plug it in and it does the work behind the scene; no need to stop what you are doing.
The only problem with it is the human aspect – you actually need to plug it in every once in a while.
I am backing up my stuff as I am writing this comment. LOL
Glad to have you back!
Ana
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I heard something interesting from James Schramko recently which was about being like water. Water is indestructible… it hits a log and it goes around it, you freeze it and it thaws out and you heat it and evaporates and rains from a cloud.
You’ve just got to work through these things.
With my solution I simply keep it plugged in all the time. This is possible if you use a desk workstation with your laptop. That can take out that human element of actually remembering.
Thanks Ana.
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Hey, Wayne:
I’ve seen this time and time again where someone writes about how they’ve just lost heaps of data by not having a back up system in place and how they meant to set one up and just never got around to it.
I use an online backup service called Mozy, the basic plan is free and holds quite a bit of data. When it’s time to upgrade, I will. I heard about Mozy from another online marketer who suffered the same as you, then wrote about it and discussed Mozy.
But I too want to get an external drive, that’s next on my list.
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Thanks again for your comment Greg.
Yes, fortunately I didn’t lose my data but it did cost me a small fortune to recover the data, however I valued the data on my hard drive at much more than the £456 ($742) so had it recovered.
I was very lucky to get the data recovered as it went to a special recovery centre and they are very uncommon places. I was definitely the victim of complacency.
I urge you to back up your precious data ASAP.
Thanks,
Wayne
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I already do, it would be devastating to me if I my laptop crashed or caught on fire or what have you, and I didn’t have access to my data. In fact, shudder the very thought. lol.
I hope others are listening and setting some sort of back up system for themselves, before its too late. You were lucky in that yours was recoverable, but still it came at quite an expense. $800 is nothing to sneeze at.
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As a computer techie I know all about backups and how they can save your work. Even your job.
A backup device for your computer is like a parachute in a plane. Don’t leave the ground without it. Period!
Just for reference, ANY external drive will do provided you can connect it to your computer and that it is big enough. There is plenty of free software around to do the (scheduled) backing up for you. “Cobian Backup” for example.
Please note that in a case of a total crash you will still need to replace your existing harddisk and reinstall your operating system and software.
If you’re really want to make your restoring life easier you should create an ‘image’ of your harddisk as well
so you can instantly restore your operating system and software, prior to restoring your backupped data.
I personally recommend people even use a ‘raid array’. This is a setup where multiple harddisks are used to store your data. Harddisks are fairly cheap anyway right?
That way one or even two disks can crash without you losing any data. You can even keep your computer running. Replace the broken disk and you’re all done.
And last but not least; get yourself a UPS. They too are fairly cheap but will protect your computer from power outage (which can also crash your harddisk) and power surges.
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Thanks for adding these helpful tips Remco.
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Ooh, I’m glad I’ve searched this post of yours. I’ll work on backing my computer up immediately.
Anyway, that’s a negative point for Sony VAIO :) I wonder what caused it to crash? What do you think? So whether you buy an expensive or a cheap one, it doesn’t matter now :)
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Hi Andrew,
The cost of the laptop doesn’t protect you against crashes.
A laptop should really receive a service every so often which most people do not have done.
Over time, your laptop gets a layer of dust inside which makes the fans work really hard to keep the laptop cool.
Getting the dust removed helps the fans to keep the laptop components cool.
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Whether you buy a cheap or expensive laptop it’s a must to backup any important file you have. Make it a habit every time you finish a new project. Cause I know how it feels to lose valuable files. :(
After lose of my HDD, I start to look at Blu-Ray discs as storage alternative, or online storage. Some HDD manufacturers gives vouchers for free online storage place for Up to 5gb for free, have some experience.
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Hi Stass,
Welcome to my blog and thanks for your comment. :)
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I am a little paranoid about backing up my data. I currently back up my data online and to an external, portable hard drive. I only keep my data on another external hard drive, which is my master copy.
To help protect my computer, everything that is connected to it is connect to a UPS – including the phone and Internet cables.
Losing data is never fun, especially if you can’t recover or reproduce the data. Spending some time setting up a backup process is very important.
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Hi Paul,
Wise words indeed. I have been a victim myself.
You should check this guest post out too – you’ll get some decent tips from it. :)
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Too bad about the data loss. Backing up should always be priority 1, especially when using a laptop.
I had a similar story with my server (no backups, no raid system) and the hard disk actually crashed in the process of making the backup :(
Luckily all my databases and client files were copied by the time the hard disk crashed so backing up was less painfull.
Now using a raid-5 system on the server and a backup server similary with raid-5 and online backup as well