ALWAYS back-up important computer files. I learned this lesson the hard way when I didn't back up dozens of valuable photos on a laptop. During a hurricane, the laptop was hit by a surge -- I was in a hotel without my surge protector -- and it fried my hard drive.
After that lesson, I began backing-up my files onto DVDs, a time consuming process that could also be frustrating when, for some reason that is still a mystery to me, my DVD writer couldn't recognize one in five blank DVDs.
Fortunately, computer engineers invented external hard drives that are basically plug-and-play drives that you can back-up all your valuable documents, photos, movies and tunes onto in a matter of minutes. The first model I owned, that I still use, is a 250 GB Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive. I basically took it out of the box, plugged it into an outlet, and connected it to my computer, with the provided data cable, and I was off and running.
The Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive has given me piece of mind and saved me a lot of headaches. When another laptop crashed recently, I was able to shrug it off. All the important files were already backed up on my external hard drive. All I had to do was plug it into another computer and get back to work.
My data is so important to me, I actually bought a second external hard drive to store it on, in case the Western Digital My Book ever gives out -- not that I've ever seen a sign it was getting tired.
Western Digital now has 1 and 2 terabyte external hard drives that hold substantially more than the 250 GB version I bought a few years ago. And the prices are coming down fast.
Don't lose the memories that matter most. Buy an external hard drive today.
The Western Digial My Book External Hard Drive is a simple, plug-and-play, way to back-up your important documents, photos, movies and tunes. The 250 GB version shown here holds thousands of documents, photos and tunes and dozens of movies. Western Digital now sells models with terabyes of storage that will hold substantially more data.
