Backing Up Your Computer

Last week I turned my personal laptop computer on one morning. After 20 minutes of watching the screen with the spinning circle and the word "welcome" next to it I knew I had a problem. My mind started racing. Does my computer have a virus, is my Windows 7 operating system on the fritz, or do I have a hardware problem?

The computer was only 17 months old. Of course, like most Americans, I did not purchase an extended maintenance or warranty agreement when the computer was purchased.

Now here comes my public confession. Just one week before the computer mishap I bought a flash drive and backed up my files and photos. Prior to purchasing the flash drive, for 17 months, I had not performed even one backup of the information on my computer. I knew better. I just didn't do it.

A business associate at Site Smart had a friend who was able to help me out. After his inspection and testing he determined that my hard drive had failed. Thanks to his expertise and a little bit of luck he installed a new hard drive and was able to retrieve all of my data from the old failed hard drive.

All is well that ends well, right? Yes, but it also deserves some careful reflection on my part. For instance, even if I had purchased a warranty would the manufacturer been able to retrieve my data from the old hard drive? What if my business associate's friend could not have retrieved all the data and I did not have that data on a flash drive? The thought of a computer with a new hard drive but none of my data on it was not a solution.

The fact that I had just recently bought a flash drive and backed up my data was pure luck. The flash drive had a price of $ 14.00. My documents, music and photos are priceless to me.

We all seem to forget or ignore one important job to be performed regularly on our computers. Backing up our data, including files like office documents, our photos, music and videos must unconsciously seem like such a chore. If not a chore, maybe we are just not sure of how to perform a backup. Things can go wrong. Computers get viruses, hard drives fail, or an errant cup of coffee causes damage.

Smart phones should have backup too.

Check to see what type of backup program you have and whether you have to manually backup or it is automatic. Also make sure the backup device is separate from the computer. For personal use computers a flash drive works for me.

My next blog will discuss some of the devices you can choose to back up your own data.

Bob B.
Internet Marketing Consultant
Site Smart Marketing

Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2012 Sales Stats Are In!

According to IBM, as part of their Smarter Commerce initiative-Digital Analytics Benchmark, "shoppers once again took full advantage of early promotions this holiday season". Online consumer spending increased by 17.4% on Thanksgiving and 20.7% on Black Friday over the prior year.

Purchases made using a mobile device increased with 24% of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's website, compared to 14.3% in 2011.

Here's a interesting statistic. Some very savvy consumers shopped in store,online and on mobile devices all at the same time to search for the best bargains.

It is clear, the increased use of mobile devices to shop and purchase is here to stay, for Black Friday or any day we are looking for products or services to buy. Mobile use is becoming mainstream for e-commerce shopping.

Mobile technology and the incredible growth of demand is revolutionizing the way we shop. This growth offers a very real opportunity for retailers to market their products and services from eCommerce as well as generate more in-store traffic by increasing their online presence. For the consumer mobile use shopping is convenient and efficient to determine product availability, price comparisons and ease of purchase.