But what happens if I lose my laptop somehow? Leaving it in my car can result in break-ins (as has happened to quite a few of my friends).

Or I may accidentally leave it behind in a restaurant one day, for somebody else to pick up.

And don’t let me start talking about hard disk crashes or viruses that wipe out data in the blink of an eye…

Here’s a simple and cheap solution that you may wish to implement to ensure you survive the above.

I have an external, 30GB hard disk that I use to back up my data at the end of every day (that I “work”). It fits into my pocket like a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant.

I’ve also installed a software on my laptop that will check for the latest or updated documents/images/audio/video clips on my laptop’s hard disk and then tell me which ones need to be backed up to my external hard disk.

The time it takes for the “checking” is about 1 minute so far. This time will increase as my hard disk gets filled up, but hey, I can fill those minutes up by making a cup of coffee.

When all the files that need to be backed up to my external hard disk are indicated by the software, I click on the green “Synchronize” button – and the job is done within a few seconds.

The end result – I have 2 hard disks with identical data except for the programs and operating system that only exist on my laptop.

Now if my laptop is lost, gets stolen or its hard disk crashes, I’ll still sleep well because my crucial data is still with me. And some of my programs are on CDs at home with a few others also in the backup hard disk itself – so re-installing them on a new computer that I can buy immediately isn’t a problem.

If you don’t use up as much disk space as I do, you may be able to get by with just a 1GB thumb drive as your external hard drive.

But if you’re going to be doing any significant product development on your own, especially when you create videos or audio files -a thumb drive isn’t going to give you enough space.

An alternative is to use your own or 3rd parties’ online storage servers where you back up your data on your computer to those servers over the Internet. However this is a slower process than simply backing up to an external hard disk – and I can sometimes be in a rush. Plus you’ll need an Internet connection for this to work.

My subscriber lists are on my various servers on various domains that are also backed up regularly to my laptop hard drive which I then back up to my external hard drive. My hosting companies will also automatically keep a back up copy of my data on their servers so I’ve got a copy of my subscriber lists and all my web pages and programs with them as well for quick re-installation should anything happen to my servers.

You can buy any hard disk for backing up your computer – they’re cheap. But look around for the smallest, lightest hard disk cover so that your hard disk can be the lightest it can be. This can be handy if you’re travelling a lot.

Then guard this hard disk with your life.

I actually don’t carry it around with me that much. It’s left at a certain location after I’ve backed it up. I NEVER put the external hard disk together with my laptop at any time. Otherwise what’s the point?

The Samsung hard disk with a light, small plastic cover is the smallest I’ve found.

But what about the software that makes the backing up work with my external hard disk?

It’s called “FileSync“. Get it by clicking –> this link.

It’s free.

If you’re serious about your business – you’ll do this.

Cheers!

Sen Ze

P.S. Find out how I deal with e-mails storage in my next post. E-mails between you and your Prospects/Clients are extremely important – and you don’t want to lose any of them.

P.P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/backup/survival-of-the-business-backup-artist.htm