Only Floss the Teeth you want to keep, backups too.

Were you like I and went to the dentist religiously as a kid? Did you see that same sign that said: “Only floss the teeth you want to keep!”? For some reason that memory has me associating that statement with backups.

A back up is just as important as flossing and probably should be done just as often.

Unlike flossing there are a lot of different ways to back up, flossing, well you more or less just floss and I won’t go into any greater detail as it might be TMI Too Much Information.

You can do backups with a CD, a jump or USB thumb drive, a DVD, a stand alone external hard drive or even a Networked Attached Storage Device (NAS). I am sure there are just as many different types of floss as there are backup solutions. I will just repeat a similar sentence. “Just backup the files that you want to keep.” I have found that only the really important files are the ones that get misplaced, erased, or over-written. I am at times amused when someone comes into the shop and their computer has crashed and one of the techs hears: “These are really important files I have to have them back this stuff is Mission Critical my whole business will be ruined if I don’t get these files back.” Well, then you ask the really important question: “When was the last time you backed these up?” And then you get that blank and then scared look on the customer’s face. “Back up? You mean the computer isn’t doing that all by itself; “I thought the computer was like, you know, smart?” Then the customer starts to cry as they realize that it really is their own fault for never doing or performing a back up.

So, this is the long and short of it: Only back up the files you want to keep, just like your dentist your computer tech will be quite happy for you.