Lessons Learned, plus a little ditty to help remember those lessons

One day, you will die.

One day, you will have to get a different car.  Before then, you'll have to get a new set of tires.  As much as it would be awesome for them to last forever, they just won't.  You'll have to replace them.

And one day... one day... you'll have to get a new computer.  Most likely, it won't be because you found a new shiny one that you liked better.  It's usually because the one you have has completely died a horrible death.

You with me?

That's what happened to me on Monday.  I was leaving to pick Josh up from work and my screen froze. After it didn't correct itself, I restarted it.  It never came back on fully.

Long story short, there are some experts currently working on retrieving everything on my computer.

In the meantime, I went and bought a new one.  I need it for my business, and if the other one is salvageable, I'll just sell it.

Everyone's first question: Did you lose everything?!

Answer: No!

 I had almost everything on a back-up hard drive.  For my photo sessions, I have most of them on CD as a second back-up.  Aside from some personal photos and documents, I lost one client session (and yes, that client already knows-- so if I haven't told you, no worries-- you're covered!).  It stinks, and I learned my lesson to do a back-up more often.

With my business?  Everyday.

The back-up hard drive we chose cost less than $100 and save me a lot of grief.  When I turned the computer on, it asked me if I wanted to transfer information from another hard drive.  I plugged it in, clicked the button, and...

Voila!  Everything immediately transferred.  I didn't have to download all my programs again, I didn't have to worry about losing precious files.

So whether you use your computer for business or for fun, if there are things you don't want to lose, then I highly suggest getting a back-up hard drive.

And if you have a Mac, it's so easy to do that you really have no excuse!

Here's a little ditty to help remind you to back up your computer!  You're welcome. :)