Once again we’ve come up to another Data Backup Day! Data loss is no joke – not even on April Fool’s Day.  What would you do if you lost all your research? Are you prepared in case a natural disaster like the recent floods in Rhode Island.

Ways To Backup Your Data

“Back in the day” the ways of securing your data meant copying to CDs or *ugh* even floppy disks (remember those?). Luckily these days we have more and more devices including cheap external drives with 1 TB or more of store and online applications that will backup your data – for free!

• Hard Drive: if you have room on your hard drive, create a “copy folder” of your essential data. This not only gives you a second copy but is what you can use to copy out to CDs, DVDs or other media.

• CDs and DVDs: if your computer has a CD/DVD burner, you can create your own CDs and DVDs to store data.

• External Hard Drive: an external hard drive can connect to your computer via a USB connection and they can hold 1 TB (that’s terabyte as in 1,000 GB) at a relatively cheap price (some under $100). What’s also nice is the size: some can fit in the palm of your hand.

• Online Backup Services: there are a variety of sites that allow you to backup your data – some even for free!

Data Types To Backup

The main focus is your research database but think about backing up these items as well:

• blog posts and templates

• emails

• Internet favorites and bookmarks

• photos and scanned documents

Data Backup Resources

GeneaBloggers has developed a resource list of data backup methodologies and solutions.  Click here to learn how you can backup almost every aspect of your blog, your browser, your computer – even Macs!

Recent Genealogy Blogger Experiences

If you think that data loss can’t happen to you, see what your genealogy blogging colleagues have said recently:

Photo: Backup Backup Backup – And Test Restores at Flickr courtesy of Topato

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee