Back it up!

It's been three months since I got my new laptop and we still haven't transitioned over to it. It's been one thing after another. My external mouse didn't work and I needed to get a different cable. It wouldn't connect to the internet. It wouldn't accept my email program. Blah blah blah.

So I'm still working on my old laptop and just dealing with the 30-second-warning shutdowns and other weird quirks it's still prone to.

But this afternoon...oooh, that scared me. I was copying over some complicated Word files when Word froze up. No biggee, it's done that before, so I shifted over to something else and waited for it to unfreeze.  But then the  computer just...stopped. Turned off cold. I couldn't restart it.

Crap.

This was Sunday afternoon, and for the first time in months I had forgotten to do a full-scale backup Sunday morning before leaving for church. I don't know why. I simply forgot. That meant it had been nearly two weeks since I'd done a full backup. I was in trouble.

Thankfully, after a few minutes of cooling down, my old laptop started up again and I immediately ran a backup. Don worked on the new computer somewhat this afternoon, but he's putting in insane hours on our business and didn't have time to get it figured out. So I'm still on my old laptop.

From now on, I'm doing bi-weekly full backups of my files, and daily backups on the thumb drive.

This is serious stuff, folks. For God's sake, back up your computer.

My computer is dying

Yes it's true. My trusty and well-used Dell Inspiron 1501 is starting to cough and hiccup and gasp a few more times than I'm comfortable with. It's latest trick is to turn itself off, unexpectedly and without provocation, with a mere 30-second warning... which, if I'm in the middle of writing a column, may not be enough time to save everything and close all the supporting windows (from doing research) before it goes dark.

So it looks like it's time for a new laptop.

I can't complain. I've had this computer for four years. It's missing the "Y" key from where the cat pulled it off last year (when I was lifting him off the keyboard). It's coated with dust and pet fur. The screen is a bit scratched. Yet through it all, it's chugged on, faithfully and mostly without fuss. It's seen me through endless columns and articles, blog entries and solitaire games. It cost me $400 and I really can't argue that I haven't gotten my money's worth.

So I'll be ordering a new Dell tomorrow, specifically a Dell Inspiron 1545. It's cheap and has no fancy bells and whistles (which, let's face it, I have absolutely no need for). I can't beat the price either.


It's annoying to have to break in a new computer and get it to where I need it to be. But as my husband so wisely points out, this computer makes us money. It's how I bring in income writing. It's a tool, and sometimes tools need to be replaced.

And one thing's for sure: it underscores the critical importance of backing up one's computer. The last computer I had died - unexpectedly and completely - and totally without warning. If I hadn't had a full-scale backup from two weeks prior, I would have lost a tremendous amount of data and a whole lotta writing. In short, I would have been devastated. As it was, it turned into merely an annoying glitch because we had the backup that my husband was able to load onto the new computer.

So folks, back up your computers. External hard drives are cheap at Costco and worth their weight in gold if your computer suddenly dies. I do a full-scale backup every week, specifically Sunday mornings before we leave for church. Trust me when I say it will save your fanny.