My data is hugely important, but I don't treat it that way. The data I store on my school computer--unit plans, lessons, handouts, schedules, meeting minutes, exemplary student work--is irreplaceable to some extent. Could I survive if all was lost? Yes. But I would experience major frustrations and a lot of lost time recreating everything. The only things I have electronic, back up copies of are those things I save to my flash drive to take home and work on, files that have been attached to e-mails and sent home to work on, or those things I have sent via e-mail to others thus creating a back up copy through that person having a copy. There are no deliberate actions on my part to back up any of my files at school. I assume because data at school is saved on our district's server that the data is safe. (I do have paper copies of most everything I use in the classroom organized by unit in binders in my classroom cabinets.)
The data I store on my home computer consists mostly of photographs and videos which are irreplaceable. The data I have stored at home consists of duplicates of files, folders, etc. I have stored at school as well as some sports/coaching folders. If these things were lost, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Although a computer crashed a few years ago in our house and we lost photos, videos, and files, we have not been diligent about backing up our "stuff." Immediately after the crash we purchased an external hard drive and transferred our pictures and videos to that, but honestly (and sadly) have not touched that hard drive in over a year. In the first class of this graduate program I moved my school file from my home computer to online storage (DropBox), so I can access it from home and school. Thus those (selected) files are "safe." Some of my school files are on a flash drive I tote between home and school. Truly, there is not a lot of organization nor safety in the way I organize and back up my files, if you consider my efforts an attempt at keeping my files safe! Some of our photographs are located in online picture storage such as Snapfish, Shutterfly, and Walgreens. The photographs that are saved in these spots are the ones I ordered hard copies of for photo books and scrapbooking. I have intentions of transferring our photos and videos to one spot like Motion Box, but cringe at the thought of the time it will take to complete such an endeavor.
Prior to owning a PC, I used multiple, colored floppy disks (which I loved) to save the work I processed on my portable word processor. I also kept hard copies of important documents, such as school papers, in file folders stored in a cardboard file box. Also, prior to owning a PC, my cameras used film, so I faced the issue of trying to keep photo negatives in a safe spot which for me was in a fireproof safe.
I truly do not worry about backing up my files. At this point I am fully aware of the importance of backing everything up, but am unwilling to take the time to do it. Hopefully, I won't regret this choice.
