ON Sunday evening just after seven we heard an explosion and we could feel a shock wave move through our house and neighbourhood.
We were not sure what had happened, but after a while when we went outside we saw that a house in one of the town house complexes next to ours was on fire.
A gas cylinder had exploded. Most of the house had already burned down and we realised that everything in the house had already been turned to ashes. As we walked back to our house we spoke about what the first things were that we would try and rescue if something like that were to happen.
I realised that these days you would grab your computer or laptop. Not for the documents, but because you are probably storing all your photos on that computer.
Maybe you would grab all your discs with your backups or an external hard-drive. We do not keep our memories only in printed format anymore. When we take photos on our cellphones or cameras, we first transfer it to our computers and then maybe print some of them. I realised the importance of having a backup system in the “cloud” or should I say online. If you are not backing up three times you may have a problem. Here is my advice. First make a local copy on an external hard drive or DVD of your most valuable data. Your second step is to take your most valuable data and also make a copy that you keep with a friend or family member in another location, not your house!
Lastly, get online storage for your most valuable documents. For minimal data, use something like Dropbox.com and if you need more space you can always find other solutions.
I’ll link to a few at www.nicobaird.com for you to click to. Just be safe with your data and don’t take any chances.