Have you ever asked yourself, should I do a backup of my computer’s data? I hope your answer is: YES. If you do not do backups then why not? If you do regularly back up your data, how often do you do it? Simple questions, aren’t they? But what are YOUR answers?
No Backup.
Let’s break it down: NO backup. My question here is, are you crazy? Your data may consist of photographs, and documents which relate to maybe word or spreadsheets i.e. finances or budgeting etc. There are a multitude of “things” we collect whilst using a computer. We shall leave the no back up for now.
Choice.
Our other choice is, doing backups. The question we ask is: how often should we do a backup? If you run a business, this would most likely be done on a daily basis.
However, your own data on your personal computer may be treated differently. The question comes down to how different? Ask yourself, is your data more or less important than a business?
I shall let you ponder on this question. You do really need to think about your answer and not rush into it.
When?
So, our data and backups. Is it daily? If you have large amounts of activity, it could be. If there was no activity, then there would be no point but would you remember any activity?
Weekly could be excessive but would depend on how much data has gone through your machine. Yearly, what are you thinking? Same with quarterly! Monthly is a good idea. Of course, there is the but what happens if it’s the day before the end of the month and your machine dies?
When it comes to a backup, the choice is yours. You have to decide. Please do a backup.
Laptop.
Why am I writing about backups?
Remember my writing about Alfred that descended on my area back at the beginning of March 2025. Well, I hadn’t used my laptop for a couple of days and when I decided to turn it on, guess what – NOTHING.
I had a dead computer. You are asking the question now, aren’t you? Link Alfred post: https://ancestorfamily.com/2025/04/04/alfred/
CQFHS.
One of the family history societies I belong to: Central Queensland Family History Society (CQFHS) sends out monthly reminders to back up your data, in particular relating to family history. However, what do I do in answering your question? Well, I back up my entire hard drive.
On this particular occasion I backed up on the 1st of March. I had completed a little bit of work since that date. One piece in particular was about the foundations prior to the corrections called “Time.” This caused it to be delayed for publishing. My computer repair person accessed the hard drive and copied it to a USB. It was published on 2 May. https://ancestorfamily.com/2025/05/02/time/
Blessing.
Now, this scenario was a blessing! I asked the question what if it had occurred on 27 February. I would have lost a tonne of data. This data would have had to be re-entered, as I only back up monthly. I am now, seriously reconsidering this action. Daily could be an overkill. Weekly is probably more realistic. I am a finance nerd and religiously attend to these matters weekly. What do you suggest I do? Please write your answer in the comments.
Lost.
Back to NO backup…
By now, you should have realised that YOU need to carry out regular backups.
You will save yourself from dealing with all the extra stress.
Your precious data… Lost forever.
In conclusion, it is up to you how often you back up your computer. What you have to remember is, computers eventually will stop working. How precious is your data, especially your photographs and other important documents?
My advice: BACK IT UP, NOW.
Ancestor Family 