It happened again. My computer crashed (at less than 1-year-old), but I never felt the need to backup my data.

If you’ve been reading Crayon Writer for a while, you know that my last laptop’s hard drive crashed earlier this year.

So what am I going to do to avoid this in the future?

Hopefully my ideas will help any other lazy backer-uppers too.

I will cc myself on any important emails I send. Perhaps I’ll cc them to my “free” email account. This way I won’t lose important emails.

I will also email myself important documents I’m working on (or have finished), like my resume or a client’s project.

I will turn off my laptop or computer more often, or at least put it in “standby” mode. I think my hard drives burned out from overheating.

Finally, though I’m a bit lazy, I will backup my files at least every two months. I found a computer store in town that charges just $40 for this service.

And while we’re working on prevention, buy renter’s or homeowner’s insurance. If you get burglarized or your neighbors aren’t handy with an oven, you may not lose everything you own (monetarily speaking). I just signed up a month ago.

I sure wish insurance could magically recover my documents. Here’s hoping the computer fixers can get something from my fried hard-drive.

 Any other advice for avoiding computer catastrophes?

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