Are Your Backups Working? by Andy Scheer

This past week I've been straightening my office. Not just around my desk, but also where I keep most of my work: my computers.

I've deleted unwanted programs, sorted files into project folders, and – most important – backed up key documents onto high-capacity flash drives and an external hard drive. I thought I was covered.

This week I've also made big changes to my website. Many hours worth. I'd hate to lose them. So I opened the administrator's toolbar, selected “online backup,” and clicked all the settings to ensure daily backups.

Or so I thought.

This morning, having made another big update, I visited the “online backup” section again. Just in case.

Good thing I did. For multiple consecutive days, the automatic backups I've been counting on had failed.

Fortunately, I discovered the problem before a crash – and made some backups manually.

If you've been in the writing business awhile, you know the horror stories of people who've lost key documents. Now they tell others to install a system for automatic backups.

Good idea. Just check if those backups work.