Dh decided to pay for an online backup service to save our data.

For the most part, we have most of our computer files on external drives, and dh even backs those up once in a while.

My dad gave us a new drive about 2 months ago. We used it to replace our net disk.

I was telling dh about some free online storage I was thinking of trying. (Apparently, I should have, for my very few important documents!)

He had his eye on something that could back up the whole computer. But, it wouldn't back up the external drives. SO, he found another place - that was cheaper anyway.

For whatever reason, he didn't backup everything. Just what he thought was important - and I don't think he captured any of my spreadsheets or Quicken data.

The problem is that the process killed the hard drive. He now thinks it *burned out* being ran so constantly through the backup. (Maybe the other place had a good reason not to back those up!)

How frustrating is it to do something right, and then lose a lot of your data? Ugh!

The kicker is that the old net disk had everything from about "2 months ago." But that seems to not be working at all either. ??? So the only other backup he has is from September 2009. Thanks, Murphy!

In the grand scheme of things we are well backed up. & whatever didn't get backed up was not important. But it's pretty annoying to be so pro-active in protecting your data, and losing some of it in the process!

The only thing that saves my butt is that I downloaded a copy of our Quicken data just a couple of weeks ago, on another computer. It is unclear at the moment if dh made a newer backup. But 2 weeks ago, I can certainly live with.

My spreadsheets don't matter so much, since I had already figured out most of it through the end of the year. I think those will be easy to re-create (or to just start over 1/1). Most the rest I only really update once a year - so those should be fine.

Pictures, we always back up often, so those are fine. Dh puts them on CD and gives them to our parents, all the time. (It's a good backuo method!)

I am going to sign up for free online storage for my very own few important documents. Because I know dh meant well, but he didn't realize where some of my important documents were. & I don't want to have to re-invent the wheel again. I feel blessed that it's not too bad, this time, but I better cover my own butt for next time.

I will try out the free site and let you know what I think.

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In other computer news, dh finished fixing the upstairs computer. It is about 8 years old. He spent $250 (+ some hand-me-down parts) to fix it up. He tells me he thinks it should last another 8 years, easy.

The kids now have 2 computers at their disposal. (The other is just a hand-me-down - well, so is this one obviously - but had to put more $$ into it).