Time Machine is incredibly easy-to-use backup software (It come with Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion). You still need a hard drive to back up your files! If you are running Tiger, SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner will let you schedule backups. Have a talk with me about the size and kind of hard drive you need to stay backed up. If you are running a Macr, you should have an automatic backup to an external hard drive (which can be wired or wireless). Even if you can afford to lose it all, it will take less time to set up a new computer from a backup than from scratch.

Simply put, backing up can mean the difference between a slight computer setback and living through your own electronic apocalypse.

I ask my clients: is there anything on your computer you cannot afford to lose? Your entire music collection? The only copy of the photos of your children? That book you have been writing for years? Computers aren’t perfect. Files become corrupt, motherboards malfunction, hard drives call it quits taking our precious data with them.

The best defense is data backup. Backing up data is vital for businesses; lost information can cause a major crisis or worse, lead to business failure. Individuals who don’t backup computer data run the same risk. While this may not cause financial ruin, it can certainly be frustrating and even heartbreaking. So why do so few of us practice data backup?