The following was written by Mike Harrison from the MacMedics Washington DC office:
Here’s my “thankful” suggestion for the day. Please take stock of your digital life, your pictures, music, digital content, files, etc. Many of you have a 4-day weekend (This Thanksgiving holiday), so please use some of that time to make sure your computer is backed up. Make sure your cell phone’s content is backed up. If you have an iPhone or iPad, use iCloud backup services. For those who don’t know me, I work with the hard-case customers that the Apple Store can’t help. I see hard drive failures, destroyed computers and data loss every day, no exaggeration. I have customers break down crying because it’s going to cost them thousands of dollars to get back the pictures of their children, or the masters thesis they’ve been working on for six years. I’ve seen young people flunk an entire semester of college because they didn’t have a backup. At least a few times a week customers, will tell me how much they “live” on their computers, many use them for their livelihood and can’t be without them for a few hours. Please be thankful your devices have worked thus far, because it’s only a matter of time before they fail, get stolen or destroyed by a spilled cup of coffee.
If your backup plan is lacking in some way, or you don’t have one at all, please get in touch with your local MacMedics office. We’d love to help you get one set up.
We have lost and lots of suggestions here on the MacMedics Blog. See this link for more info on Time Machine.
Also, with the holidays upon us already, see my tips for protecting your holiday photos here: Protect Your Holiday Photos With These Simple Steps