Back in June of this year, I had a terrible accident with my computer. I had just home after a day trip with my friend and it was late. Like I always do, I tossed my water bottle in my bag, walked inside, set my bag at my desk and went to bed. The next morning I discovered the unimaginable. The clasp on my water bottle hadn’t closed all the way the night before. The entire contents of the bottle had spilled in my bag leaving a nice big puddle at the bottom. You can imagine my horror as I pulled my laptop out and saw drips of water coming from the bottom of it.
I quickly called Brandon in a panic. Luckily he works 5 minutes away and was able to come home for a short break. Using a tiny tool kit, he disassembled my laptop. Within 20 minutes the computer was in small pieces carefully spread across our table. Long story short, among other parts, the logic board was toast. After weighing our options and consulting with a technician at the Apple store, we decided to send it in for repair. We didn’t know what else was ruined so this seemed like the most logical decision- no pun intended.
In the meantime, I had a business to run! I depend on my laptop hard core for my job because I work remotely. (Wherever there’s WiFi, there is my office!) My client files, templates, contracts and photos are all accessible on my computer. If this were past Maggie, then I would have been screwed. Luckily, about a year and a half ago, Brandon was using my laptop and noticed something. I was innocently storing all my files in a folder on my desktop. No big deal, right? I had no idea how wrong that was!
“You can’t predict, but you can prepare.” -Kevin Harkins
Because I’m an Apple user, I automatically get iCloud storage with my devices. Most people know that if they have an iPhone. It’s where your photos and Apple data is stored for your phone. But what I didn’t realize was I could sync all of my devices using iCloud so that they all had the same layout and information. This might not be a new concept for you, but it totally blew my mind.
Brandon explained to me that storing files on your desktop is not a secure way of keeping files. What you really want to do is store files in your Documents folder. Using iCloud, Brandon set up a shortcut folder to my Documents on my desktop. (A shortcut folder on your desktop is different than actually storing the file on the desktop). So when my laptop was damaged, all of my data was still available untouched, and wasn’t lost on the hard drive. I could go to my desktop computer, click the file, and poof! All of my files and photos were there, untouched. The same was true on my phone! In a pinch, if I needed a file while I was out and about, I could access it on my iPhone too. (I use an upgraded storage plan so I have enough space for all my files).
There are dozens of other cloud based storage options out there. I know Microsoft has their version too called One Drive. I know plenty of people who use other cloud sites like DropBox or Box. If you aren’t prepared for a potential computer disaster, you could be throwing away precious hours of hard work. The point is, whatever software you decide to use, go set it up right now!! Your future self will be forever grateful.
