10 backups you need for life

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A backup is not only a backup of the system or some important data. By backup, you can mean a fallback, reserve, plan "B" or some alternative in any area of life, when you suddenly lose access to something urgently needed, but you have something that can compensate for the disappeared good. Today we offer you our list of must have backups for life.

Data

There is even nothing to say. This is the foundation of the digital age, requiring a minimum of effort from the owner of the information, but how many people neglect it? Every now and then you hear how someone's hard disk flew again and "everything was gone." And this is happening now, when flash drives are cheap, DVDs are even cheaper, and the number of cloud storages available to a common user is calculated, if not in hundreds, then dozens for sure.

There is a rule "3-2-1", according to which you need to store data like this:

• all important information should be stored in triplicate;
• storage of such information should be carried out at least on two different media (for example, cloud + flash drive, flash drive + DVD, and so on);
• one copy should be located remotely in case, for example, a meteorite arrives at your home (any cloud storage does an excellent job of this).

There is no need to talk about the system at all. Both Windows and OS X have built-in backup facilities. Do not be too lazy to use them.

Any disk, both HDD and SSD, has a limited lifespan. That is, your system disk is guaranteed to break without a planned replacement. The only question is time, but he will do it, most likely, at the most inopportune moment. A planned replacement, by the way, does not give any guarantees at all, because new disks also break perfectly. That is, you practically cannot avoid it. Now, tomorrow or in four years, but it will happen 100%. Start making backups.

Money

Again Lifehacker portrays Captain Obvious, and again this happens because people still find themselves in a situation like "lost their job - there is nothing to live on."

The absence of a "cushion" in the form of a financial reserve can literally be called the greatest stupidity in our unstable and unpredictable world. Living in it on a paycheck to paycheck basis is at least hindsight.

How much money to keep in reserve? Even financial gurus cannot come to a consensus here, but we, as ordinary people, can say that we live more or less calmly in a situation where you have an amount equal to three months' income. And if it is comparable to a six-month income, then confidence is added even more. Just imagine that you have lost your job and you have six whole months during which you can search for something interesting without haste, without changing your usual lifestyle in any way.

I lost my job, ended up in a hospital, needed expensive medicines, a car broke down or something from the necessary household appliances. The list can be continued indefinitely, and in any of these situations it will be easier if there is a cash backup.

Bank card

There are two types of people: some basically use only one card and do not have a second, others carry a fan of cards in their wallet. And somewhere between them there is a layer of the most rational individuals who use one card for purchases, and also hold a spare card, the amount on which is sufficient to survive several days without the main card in case of its loss. The bank does not restore the card immediately, the procedure for withdrawing funds from the account of a lost card is not always simple and takes time, and therefore a replacement card will be very useful.

Work cases

This is not about the place of work itself, but about your activities and situations when, due to certain circumstances, you cannot do what you should, and the action is as necessary. Don't quite get it? Let's explain.

Let's take our blog as an example. Lifehacker always has some cushion of several posts that are not tied to time (that is, they do not lose their relevance, even if they are published in a week or a month). They lie in the event of an acute crisis of materials and the impossibility of maintaining the planned amount of materials produced on a specific day or days. Gradually they come out, they are replaced by other posts insensitive to the date of publication, but there is always a pillow. This is what all serious blogs do. Even if half of the authors fall ill or go into a deep writing crisis, then you, our beloved readers, will still enjoy interesting posts with the same frequency.

How can this be represented in the work activity, for example, of an ordinary office worker? Easily. Let's say you have to submit a certain report every month. And then the day before delivery, you fell ill with a temperature. And the report, oh, how needed. What to do? If you prepared a quarter of the report every week, it would be much easier to complete it both for you in a painful state and for another person if you cannot work at all.

In general, this is called force majeure reinsurance. Your work can be very important, and if you are applying for the status of a professional, you should also foresee those situations when something unexpected happens in this very work. This includes those same data backups from the first paragraph, because work computers break down in the same way as home ones. This point is too abstract to formulate general instructions, but you need to think over possible surprises in your work and draw up a plan of action for such cases. Who will insure? Who will replace? Who will finish it?

Internet

With the development of the mobile Internet, it has become much easier to provide oneself with a backup communication channel with the Network. Your smartphone or tablet, if it has unlimited or conditionally unlimited Internet, is a backup in case the main provider once again breaks down at the most inopportune moment for you. You just need to know and clearly understand how to transfer the Internet from a mobile device to your work computer in case of force majeure.

If you have Wi-Fi on your work computer, you need to know how to turn your mobile device into an access point. In the absence of Wi-Fi, you need to know how to connect your mobile as a modem over the wire. Particularly thoughtful spend home the second Internet channel from another provider with the cheapest tariff. More frugal people exchange passwords for Wi-Fi networks with neighbors.

A computer

Whether it is a desktop, laptop or tablet, you always need something to replace its functions in an unforeseen situation. Turned out the light. Do you have a UPS or laptop with a charged battery to continue working? The hard disk flew. Okay, following the first point, you backed up the data, but the work is urgent. How will you work on the burning task? Your humble servant still has an ancient HTC Wildfire in good condition in case the main smartphone suddenly fails. In this light, the tablet can no longer be viewed as a trinket for affection with cats in the toilet, but as that very emergency replacement for a broken computer.

The documents

Everything is simple here. We are accustomed to storing original documents in a single copy, but it will never be superfluous to additionally keep scans of these documents in electronic form.

However, before running to the scanner, it is useful to put some basic order in the documents. Make sure you have access to your documents. Passport, policy, SNILS, TIN, card details, rights, property documents and everything else. To better understand what the list of documents should be, for example, for an apartment, try searching the Internet for a list of required documents when selling an apartment.

Emergency contacts and numbers

It is a good idea to keep a piece of paper with contacts in your wallet so that the person who found your wallet can return it to you. The same piece of paper should be in the passport. And on the lock screen of your Android smartphone in case you lose your mobile and someone finds it.

In case you are unconscious or cannot speak and someone has found you, your smartphone will help this person, in addition to calling an ambulance. You can also place an emergency contact on the lock screen of your Android device.

Now about the numbers in case of force majeure. How long will it take you to call the emergency gang when a battery burst in your apartment and boiling water gushes? Oh, you don't even know the number? Find out, write it down and keep it with you. The same goes for gas and electricity. List the police and firefighters here. In certain situations, speed can become synonymous with life for you.

Home supplies

You woke up in the morning, and outside the window, zombies walk everywhere and bite people. Or a much more real war. Leaving your home is dangerous. How long can you hold out on the stocks existing in your apartment? Imagine that the water supply is cut off. How many liters of potable water do you have? What to eat? How about medications? Do you have antibiotics too?

Reasonable reserve has never harmed anyone, and therefore it will be useful to keep a reserve of water at home, long-lasting food that does not need to be cooked (stew and condensed milk - our everything), medicines and other items in case of isolation from stores and pharmacies will be useful. And, of course, a flashlight.

Plan for the future

We are so inspired by stories about how a person put everything on the line, his idea succeeded and now he is a successful entrepreneur. But not all ideas take off, and it is no longer so pleasant to read about the stories of those who risked everything and losers, believe me. Going all-in is reckless. There should always be a fallback, alternative in case something goes wrong. Take an example from the beautiful half of humanity: according to the Daily Mail, half of women have a “spare husband” in mind, that is, a person whom you can quickly marry if the current marriage suddenly collapses.

Prudence is one of the most useful qualities for a person, which allows him to perform rather bold actions by general standards, but always have a backup option, escape routes, a plan in case of force majeure and complete failure. This allows you to break out of the vicious circle of everyday life and start trying to make your life better, because for every inner "What if it doesn't work out?" you can say to yourself: "It's okay, I have a backup."