A few years ago, I sat on my couch with a nice tall cup of Cheerwine set squarely next to my brother’s laptop. I was in the midst of writing my thesis, with research notes, documents, and the plethora of other information one gathers, stored securely on the laptop. Never did I, or my brother, consider the chance that Cheerwine might cause such sticky chaos and destroy in moments work that had taken hours to prepare. I got two free laptops that summer, a replacement for my brother, and since he would never loan his again (and I would never ask him after the destruction I wrought), a laptop for myself.
As a proud owner of an Apple Macbook, I described to friends how fantastic it was that the laptop never crashed—not once. Not once until 2009. I had purchased an external hard drive; I had never actually put into action the practice of utilizing the external hard drive. I bring up these hard learned lessons to point out (not preachy point out, just big-sister-hope-you-don’t-have-to-make-this-mistake to learn point out) that it is essential for anyone with any type of laptop to back up their data externally.
Today, providers abound with the ability to back up, and store data, in the cloud. If you are one who is hesitant and slightly (or seriously) uncomfortable with storing your data ‘somewhere out there,’ then grab an external hard drive. My friends make fun of my 2006 model purchased. Admittedly, the drive is a tad bigger than an old-style cable box, but it works. Along with regular backups to the external drive, I utilize an online service that is quite simply extraordinary. I have my documents available anytime, anywhere, and can share with others for collaboration if I so choose—but best of all—I have my data stored in two secure locations. I no longer have a broken laptop and now I’m enjoying a great new one thanks to my savvy online laptop shopping skills. Yipee.
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Tags: apple laptops, buying a laptop, getting a free laptop, laptops, shopping for laptops
