capture it or lose it forever

I was speaking on the phone with a friend last night about the importance of digital memories.

Ask yourself the following 3 questions:

• When was the last time you backed up your mail, if ever?
• If you blog, is that backed up?
• Do you have digital photos that you value? Are those backed up?

If you answered those 3 with "Never", "No" and "No", realize that all your mail, writings and photos could be gone tomorrow. And what's more important is that there's no possible way to get them back.

I have had two instances where I lost all my email. And I mean all of it. It really ticked me off because those little bits of data were gone forever. Since then I make it a point to backup the mail routinely.

These days backing up is easy. Just go and buy a 4GB USB stick. They're $14 at Wal-Mart and in a month will probably be $10. These things are more reliable than CDs and last for around 5 to 8 years.

In addition to mail, I have my blog database backed up and I also archive other things on the 'net such as other people's blogs that I follow. Why? Because I know one day they'll be gone.

I honestly don't think people realize how easy it to lose all the stuff they put so much effort into on the internet. They don't realize that there is no permanence to data stored on some server out there you have no control over.

Got stuff you value that's on your computer box? BACK IT UP. I can't say it any more plainly than that. If you don't, you will lose it.