In 1999, I learned a hard lesson in why backing up my hard drive is so important. It all started while I was doing some work on an inventory spreadsheet for a bar in Dallas during a thunderstorm. Need I say more? Probably not, but I'm going to anyway.

Rain storms in Dallas are an interesting phenomenon. For one thing, they are seldom made up only of rain. Usually they are of the thunder-and-lightning (read, hellfire-and-brimstone) variety. There's not a lot of subtlety when it comes to wet weather in Dallas, especially in the spring, which it was on this particular day in 1999.

One interesting thing about a storm in Dallas: you can often see and hear it coming from miles away, even though you yourself might be standing in perfectly nice, even sunny, weather. As the storm gets closer and the decibel level of the thunder increases, you begin to understand the full impact of the storm. It begins to have real physical repercussions to your immediate surroundings. But by then, it's too late to duck and cover. You're in it, man. Suck it up.

When I started my work that evening, skies were clear. There was no sign of rain in view. But after thirty minutes of work, I began to hear thunder in the distance, and as I've described, it got louder and louder, until all at once it was directly above and all around me. Then the rain started. We lived in a wood-framed two story apartment complex built in the early 70s. It had obviously withstood several storms, but it always made you wonder if this was the one that would bring things down.

Catherine was in the other room. I shouted out to her: "Do you think I should stop working?"

"Probably," she said.

"Eh. Damn Dallas weather. I bet it's gone in no time. I'll give it another minute or two."

Never underestimate the power of denial.

Sure there were lightning flashes right outside my window and sure I was working on a device that was powered by electricity and plugged into wall sockets that were already a bit unreliable and known to surge from time to time. It made no difference. Surely, my computer was impervious to lightning attack.

When the final damning bang sounded, loud and righteous, at what seemed to be frighteningly close proximity to our apartment, the lights flickered briefly and my computer screen went dark. And something told me this was no simple power outage.

Wait! Do-over. I want a friggin' do-over!

I put finger to power button. The green power LED came on, but the monitor remained black. Something was wrong. Try again.

Nothing.

The numbing reality lead to an immediate, all-consuming panic, like the sudden onset of a handful of amphetamines. I thought of all the files that were stored in that white box which hadn't been backed up for at least six months. Crying seemed to be a logical next step, but I was too stunned to cry. Instead, I spent the next thirty minutes exploring new ways to engage in the act of psychological self-flagellation, the likes of which I'm sure Catherine had never seen. I knew after she survived that little episode, she would stay married to me for life.

While all this went on, the storm blew over and the sun came out. Calmness. Silence outside.

What the hell!?

Somewhere in the distance there was another rumble of thunder.

Heck! I mean heck! Damnit!

To sum it up, I had to replace both the motherboard and the hard drive on that doomed computer. Insurance actually covered the hard costs of the replacements, but the fact remained that about six months of files were gone for good.

At that time, I didn't use my computer nearly as much as I do now. I had yet to start developing Web sites professionally. So, while the loss of files was still an upsetting thing then, it was not the terrible event that it would be for me these days. Today, pretty much all my personal and professional files are digital. Work files, writing, notes, finances, photos, music. It's all there. Want to understand absurdity? Just imagine all those important documents disappearing in a blip.

Needless to say, this experience showed me the error in my old ways. It brought me toward the light.

Amen, Brother.

God rendered my computer useless with a single blow and he could do it again!

The Truth, Brother - Speak it!

On that day, I made an oath to myself and to God: I shall henceforth be prepared.

That's it, Brother. Repent, repent of your wicked ways.

Since then, backing up has been something I've done regularly, albeit manually. I usually just set reminders for myself. And it's kind of a pain because it's something I've had to think about every time. But let it be known: I've still done it religiously.

This weekend, however, I finally decided it was time for a more automated solution, something that would happen whether I remembered it or not, something that would increase my chances of being protected. I've found two good pieces of software to help me toward this goal - one for Mac and one for PC - which I'll mention briefly below.

Mac - SuperDuper

Thanks to Michael over at Luminous, I was clued-in to a great application that makes the act of backing up your Mac quick and painless. After reading his review of SuperDuper, I tried it myself and love it. For you Mac people, give this a go. You'll sleep better at night and won't have to pay a lot of money for the extra piece of mind. In fact, if you can do without some features, you don't have to pay anything.

PC - KLS Backup 2006

While I have plans of switching to Mac full-time in 2007 (and am taking steps to make that dream a reality) I'm still primarily a PC guy, for now. So I needed some sort of backup utility for Windows. I'll start by saying that backing up Windows files, in general, is far more complicated and unintuitive than backing up Mac files. Even if you're really careful about keeping your files organized in a certain folder, which I am, you still have to do a bit of scrounging if you want to make sure you get all your program settings. I've tried several different applications, and have found that most of the personal utilities for backing up Windows machines are a pretty scary lot and don't help simplify the process all that much. Also, most applications confuse the user with backup methodologies and choices that most people don't want to worry about. With KLS Backup, you get some flexibility in this regard. You have the option of making custom choices with your backup if you want more control and know what you're doing. But if you don't, the software provides a pretty decent toolset for helping you find the right files to back up and make decisions on the best backup methodologies to employ. Again, let me reiterate: using this software is still not as easy as something like Super Duper for Mac. But I think any PC solution is going to require an investment in time to understand a few basic concepts. So far, KLS Backup is the most intuitive Windows utility I've found for implementing a backup strategy.

A Note about Location

For the past year, I've used two external hard drives to back up data, the idea being that if one hard drive fails, I'd still have the other backup on hand. Also, there are certain large files I only keep on an external drive, so they need their own backup to the second drive in order to be safe. But backing up to two different hard drives still doesn't do any good in the event that there is some physical disaster to my apartment. A recent episode in our building where a toilet overflowed and flooded the two apartments directly below it brought the reality of something like this into sharp focus. I've seen where denial has gotten me in the past, so this week, I started a strategy where, once a week, I bring the second hard drive to a safe-deposit box at a nearby bank. Because of my account at the bank, the box is free for me, but even if it weren't it would only cost about $50/yr, which is certainly not cost-prohibitive. There's also the investment in time spent physically transporting the drive to the bank, but I definitely think it's worth it and will help me rest a little easier at night . . . not to mention putting me right with God.

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