Back Up Reminder!

Most genealogy bloggers are aware that GeneaBloggers gives us a gentle reminder each and every month to backup our genealogy work and computer systems. I appreciate those reminders as time slips away from me. Being retired (as my husband says) I don't tend to follow the days of the week as closely as I once did, let alone when it is the beginning or end of a month.

I have found I need more than one calendar in my house, and several reminders to keep me in tune with real life. One calendar I keep by my laptop and one I keep in the kitchen. The one in the kitchen is for my daughter to fill in with all of her family events along with when I have the honor of keeping my grandchildren, the prince and princess. My husband also enters our vacations or trips away on this calendar... sometimes.

The calendar I keep by my laptop is a monthly printout from the computer in which I enter my personal events. Occasionally, I cross reference the calendars and everyone knows what is going on in everyone else's life. Like I said though that is occasionally. I don't want anyone thinking I am really totally organized all of the time, because that just isn't the case.

Anyway, the purpose of this post that I was getting to relates to our backups. Yesterday in between playing with the prince and princess I noticed it was backup day once again. I was so proud of myself, I ran an extra backup on my laptop, covering everything stored on it. Later during the day I went and backed up my blogs also. Whew, I felt so proud of myself that I was able to at least accomplish this much while I had the two little ones each vying for my attention.

This morning after I caught myself up on the news of the genealogy world, I went to my blog with the intention of writing a post. Upon entering the "new post" screen it dawned on me. I have done this back up all wrong! Do you realize what I did, or didn't do?

What I should have done was back up my blogs prior to backing up my laptop! Sure everything that was on my laptop was backed up, but NOT the latest backup of my blogs! In my case, it is actually ok because I have a couple of back up methods in place, what one didn't catch the other would. However, if this was my only backup process this would not have been a good back up for me. I should develop good habits to begin with in case this turns out to be my only backup method some day.

BEFORE you do any system backups, make sure you have everything on the system you want to back up first, it will save you from having to do it again. Your first step should be, if you have a blog or two, to back them up first and then go ahead and do a system back up. You will then have a back up of the back up of your blog. Make sense? The odds of your blog and your computer both going haywire at the same time are pretty slim. I however, do not wish to take that chance. I may be a little on the "over protective side," but I would rather be safe than sorry!

For the past week or two I have come to realize my brain hasn't been quite in tack, could it have anything to do with spending so much quality time with the grandchildren? That is the ONLY excuse I believe I will accept. If that is in fact the case, I don't foresee an improvement for many, many years...


Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!



Copyright © 2010 By Cheryl Palmer

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