As you sit at your computer reading this somewhere in the back of your mind may be the little words, "Back me up!" floating around trying to alert you to something truly important.

You swat the thought away like a pesky fly telling yourself, "I will, I will..!" and ignore that silent, almost esp-like intuition trying to help you and save you from computer disaster.

For a fleeting moment you give in to the voice, saying to yourself, "Boy I AM way behind on my backups." But...

And then it happens... WHAM! And you've lost everything :(

After having suffered two crashes in the Fall of last year, and a few problems in this new year, I can with all honesty tell you that being prepared in the event of a computer emergency is worth every second it takes along the way.

Sure it's still gut wrenching to have it happen, but putting it all back together takes less and less time the more and more you are ready for it.

What Needs Safekeeping?

Your website should be one of the first things you download on a consistent basis unless you know you have the complete website files and databases already on your own computer and you only make changes from your computer and upload to your website.

If you've been in and out of your website via FTP making a tweak here and a little, but important one there, and haven't downloaded those changes to your working folders, yikes!

Relying on the hosting company to keep your site safe is cool, but it is your site and overall your responsibility.

If you don't change it often, then once every few weeks would be fine. But, if you're like me and in there every day, more often is definitely called for... a lot more often!

Then what?

Sure I have my files on the hard drive, but if I can't access them, what good are they?

I've got both a read/write CD-ROM and an external drive, and my preference is the external drive. Call me stupid, but it's just like accessing an A disk only much bigger. It's just really easy to use, quick to install, and inexpensive to purchase.

So back 'em up!

Next, your email - every receipt for purchase, every password and username, every download link and unlock code, and... well you get the idea. Save them to disk!

If you just knew how many programs, products, and ebooks I lost last year you wouldn't even bother to finish this article, you'd just high tail it to your inboxes and start now.

Which, of course leads me to the ebooks, programs, etc., that you've purchased along the way. Are you 100% sure that you can remember the urls to the websites where they all came from...? Are you counting on your trusty Favorites folder to help you out? Think again.

If catastrophe hits, bye bye Favorites. Back them up, too.

Yes it's time consuming now - to some extent - and we all believe there's "always tomorrow."

But should tomorrow ever come... don't be caught short!

© Theresa Cahill - All Rights Reserved. Feel free to distribute this article. Please keep it intact and with the resource box included below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of http://www.mywizardads.com and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at http://www.mywizardads.com/sitemap.html

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