It's Thursday, 20-Nov-2008 14:29:55 CST

How often should you backup? That's a question only you can answer. How many days of data can you afford to do without? Some companies have backups running constantly so they can restore data to the minute. Most computer users don't have that level of need. Decide what's important to you, then create a schedule to backup your data on a daily or weekly basis.

Floppy fire fight: A photographer of the digital persuasion had just finished a trip to three different cities where he recorded the images of a client's possessions for insurance purposes. The very next day -- before he had a chance to make copies of his work -- a fire destroyed his apartment. Not all was consumed, though. While sifting through the debris, he found the box of 1.44 floppies where all of the images of the last trip were stored. We put on our fire hats and went to work. One by one, slowly, they came back -- like the Phoenix rising from the ashes. We managed recovery of about 90% of the images, saving our client's relationship with his customer and preventing the cost of re-shooting the 10-day project.