Busted Palm Online Service Reminds Us Again to Backup, Backup, Backup
Palm recently had a problem with online profiles, and following on the infamous Sidekick failure, it becomes yet another cautionary tale and reminder for us all — backup, backup, backup.
That’s right, the process so nice vitally important we repeated it thrice. Data doesn’t exist if it it isn’t in at least three places: source (device), local backup, and offsite backup (which can be the “cloud” or it can be a little USB hard drive you take to work or leave at the parents’ place). Your device can be lost, stolen, or bricked. Your local backup can error out or burn up or get flooded, and the cloud can eat your data. Having all three puts the odds of having one available version considerably more in your favor.
iPhone users rely on MobileMe, or Google services like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, etc., and since the App Store lets us re-download applications we’ve bought, some even rely on that as de facto cloud-storage for our priceless personal information and our costly purchases.
iTunes automatically backs up your iPhone to your PC hard disk. If you have an automated backup to a second hard drive (including Time Machine), along with MobileMe, Google, or a dedicated online backup service, good on ya. You’re doing it right.
If you don’t, set it up now. 1 second after failure is an eternity too late.
November 27th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Please be respectful in the comments. Don’t post under multiple user names, or comments that are disrespectful, rude, or otherwise off-topic and non-productive.
November 27th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I recently lost about a dozen Apps as I hadn’t synced since downloading, was a drag to go through iTunes invoices to find what I lost.
Lesson learnt, problem was you lose any progression/save data unless it’s backed up properly.
November 27th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Always remember. Fire, flood or other disaster kills your hard disk backup too.
November 28th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Last sentence is toooo true I just had my pc bricked by a virus but I figured out that if I keep only system files and programs on C:/ in good all of my pics music and movies are safely on D:/ and when I reliad windows as a clean install I only lose easily downloaded programs and not precious photos which are also on DVDs