In early January, a series of major fires devasted Southern California. Thousands of homes were impacted, and hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles area residents were forced to evacuate. And although we live in Northern California, we had personal interest since our daughter lives and works in Los Angeles. We monitored the fires hourly and kept in constant communication with her.
That dreadful moment arrived on January 9 when she received notice to prepare for evacuation. As my daughter panicked to gather her belongings, we provided advice on what things to take and to leave behind. She was hesitant to leave her gaming PC behind, but I told her that she can always buy another one, so just to grab her Toshiba Canvio external HDD. She loaded her car and waited. Those were some anxious hours as the fire kept getting closer, but fortunately the fire fighters were able to hold the line, and eventually the evacuation notice was lifted.
Our daughter was one of the lucky ones, but the fires reminded us how quickly things can change. And in the whole scheme of things, her losing her data would have been trivial. However, when backing up data is made so easy, I’m just happy that she took my advice and backed up her data regularly.
Every year, I write a blog to remind people about World Backup Day. The stats are mind blowing. According to Worldbackupday.com, 10%-20% of consumer PCs are affected by malware, 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute, and 29% of data loss is caused by accident. These stats are mind blowing. The solution is so simple and inexpensive that I’m still amazed that such a small percentage of people actually practice it.
Toshiba’s full line up of external HDDs makes backing up data straightforward. Canvio external HDDs range from 1TB to 4TB, and the Canvio Advance lineup has Auto Backup Software* that will automatically back up the data on your PC on a scheduled basis.1
World Backup Day is March 31, but my daughter and I will be the first to tell you not to wait because you never know when life may change at a moment’s notice.
Disclaimer
TOSHIBA AMERICA ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, INC. SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS OF DATA, OR ANY OTHER DAMAGE RESULTING FROM FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF ITS HDD PRODUCTS. TOSHIBA AMERICA ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, INC. DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY FOR THE FAILURE OF ITS HDD PRODUCTS TO COPY OR TRANSFER THE DATA CORRECTLY DURING ANY BACKUP PERFORMED.
1 One Gigabyte (1GB) means 109 = 1,000,000,000 bytes and One Terabyte (1TB) means 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes using powers of 10. A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 230 = 1,073,741,824 bytes and 1TB = 240 = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes, and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and operating system and other factors.
* Software is available via a free download that is subject to Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation's and/or Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc's. standard End User License Agreement. Software is compatible with Windows-based PC only.
World Backup Day: www.worldbackupday.com