The fire in Steiner Ranch (the community where I and many of my clients live in the NW Austin area) really drove home the need for off-site (these days usually online) backup.  24 homes here were completely destroyed by fire.  When I say completely, that includes anything that may have been on a computer and even on an external backup drive there in the home.  They are gone – along with any digital photos of kids at their first birthday, first day of school or even graduation.  Also gone are any school or work-related documents, presentation, etc. 

We’ve been back in our homes 24 hours since the mandatory evacuation and one of my clients called me today with three neighbors who wanted Carbonite on their computer to protect their data.

So what is Carbonite and what is “online backup”?  For a full explanation of backup strategy, please read my monthly article from last October titled 3-2-1 Backup.  Online backup is getting a copy of your data files (documents, photos, music, files YOU create) out of your home and onto a server off-site so that it’s safe in the event of something like robbery or fire.  Homeowners of the 24 destroyed home don’t have to worry about the information on their computers if they had Carbonite.  Carbonite would have continuously been monitoring their system and securely (as in encrypted so no one could snoop) uploaded their data to secure servers where it would be safely stored until needed.  There are of course things more important, and I don’t want to minimize the extent of their tragic loss – I just want to address the tech aspects of the disaster.  Once you replace your computer, then you can log into your Carbonite account and RESTORE all your lost data.  Your photos, music and documents that otherwise would have been lost.

When I evacuated I didn’t worry about my data – I just pulled the plug on my computers to protect them from the power surge when the power returned and walked out of the house with my dogs and a few personal items (things I truly couldn’t replace or needed.)  I knew I could get all my data back later from Carbonite if my house burnt down (thankfully it didn’t.) 

Carbonite is only $59 a year.  It automatically backs up all your data.  If you can push the button to turn on your computer, and it is connected to the Internet, then your data is safe.  You don’t have to run a special program or have any special knowledge.  As a bonus, your data is available to you from any computer you use.  If you’re away from home and want (or need) a file that was on your home computer, you can log onto Carbonite and access your files online.

I only wrote this post because it seemed evident this was a concern among computer users faced with the very REAL possibility of losing what was on their computers.  I hadn’t done so up to this point because the last thing I wanted was to have it appear as an exploited attempt to take advantage of a bad situation (frankly I’m a horrible salesperson.)  So like I said earlier, Carbonite is only $59 a year.  If you think I’m taking advantage of circumstances, then just go to Carbonite’s web site and sign up directly through them.  Otherwise, give me a call and I’ll take care of you for the very same $59.  You can set it up yourself or allow me to do it – either way the cost is the same to you (allowing me to do it puts a couple of dollars a year onto my table.)  But whatever you do – PLEASE make sure you have some kind of off-site backup.  I’ve set up many clients with an onsite backup system involving an external have drive and software that performs the backup at a specified time – but often I’ve sadly discovered that the external drives hadn’t been used for months, meaning the computer hadn’t been backed up for months.  And even with an external drive there in the home, that doesn’t protect you from fire or theft (if they take the computer, they’ll take the external drive too.)

So call me and get some peace of mind over those digital memories.  In a disaster, you have enough to worry about – just walk away from your computer, take care of more important things and let Carbonite take care of your data.