It happened to me. One day, I parked my SUV outside the house after going home a bit late. It was raining hard, didn’t have an umbrella so I had to rush through the house gate’s service door, leaving my notebook computer inside the vehicle.
I don’t want it get wet so I have to leave it there, besides, it was already 3:00 in the morning I won’t be using it anyway. The next day, around noon, head still spinning from the previous night out with my Hawaiian friend, Joe, who also loves beer and watching pretty Makati women (lol – Joe, I’m just trying to be interesting here), I went out to get my stuff.
When I opened the SUV’s front door, I knew I was in for the shock of my life that day – everything is WET! And my notebook pc wasn’t spared.
I later discovered that the vehicle’s “moon-roof” was open, well, a little bit open – not totally closed, and the rainwater freely “dripped” inside.
Eventually, I had most of the notebook parts working except for the Hard Drive! The most important part of it all.
And did you know what saved me from total disaster? I just signed up a Dropbox account a few nights before the incident, thanks to my blogger friend Dexter‘s invite.
So what is Dropbox?
To put it in simple words, just like what they did to their really cool, simple video, it’s a website that lets you “synchronize” your important data and files automatically, or I call it “automagically”.
There’s no need for manual uploading of those files - just create a folder on you PC, laptop, or mobile device, set it up to synchronize with your Dropbox Online account, and voila! It will automatically update your remote folders whenever you “drop” some files on your PC’s dropbox folder.
You can even share some files to your friends, like photos and videos. No need to send them by email. You can access your files ANYWHERE, as long as there’s an internet connection. So gone are the days where you have to backup files manually on USB or DISKS.
Dropbox offers a free account with 2GB of space. That’s a lot of files already when you are only storing documents and presentations. Should you need more, you can opt to upgrade, with a fee.
Signing up is easy – simply register and download Dropbox to your computer. You can also install it on multiple computers and devices. It will automatically synchronize all files on your devices’ individual Dropbox folder to your Online Dropbox account. Cool?
You can refer friends also to signup, there’s no monetary rewards of sorts, however you can be credited 250MB of extra space up to a maximum of 8GB when your friends register using your referral link.
So start backing up your Data and Files today. Dropbox is perfect for lazy people like me. But seriously, when was the last time you backed up your data?
I was fortunate that I synched my important files to my Dropbox account, else I would have lost lots of really important documents that day.
Go signup NOW! 
Watch the video.
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Think I need to do this. I would hate to lose all my pics and things, and I never think of backing up my info.
As a (former) Dropbox user I’d like to recommend SugarSync as an alternative way to backup and sync your data in the cloud. Free accounts provide 5GB of disk space.
If anyone wants to register for an account, feel free to use my referral link that will add 500 MB further bonus to both mine and your account
https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=do5qm2rpjareh
Thanks!
Oh my! It is one of the nightmares you should have avoided, but happens. Having a back-up is ideal, but some of us are busy and all and eventually forget about backing up our files. We will learn the hard way until something happens.
Thanks for all the good ideas here! I like the idea of using SugarSync.
BTW, as I read your story, I figured your notebook was stolen, not damaged. Your data was safe either way.
Gotta try both. LOL. @Art, I guess bloggista’s notebook was playing in the rain. Now this reminded of something – haven’t backed up my files, not even once.
I definitely will go in for the drop box,i cannot afford to lose my important docs and pics.
I love Dropbox. I forget when exactly it was suggested to me but I decided to check it out. Before that I would backup important stuff to a thumbdrive. I still do that as well but I’ve got Dropbox on three different computers. I still use the free version as most of my important files I backup are documents. If I do run out of room on the free account I’d gladly upgrade to a paid one.
bloggista,
Thank god for the backup! I use Mozy, but upgraded to their paid service. They also offer free storage (2GB). There’s nothing better than remote backups.
Hope you are doing well.
Great to see you around Frank. I think I saw Mozy in one of your posts before. I better try that as well.
Remote backups is probably one of the best thing the internet has offered.
Dropbox really looks like a great program. Specially since windows decided to delete my whole computer recently I have been think of signing up to a storage / backup service.
- Robert
I ama big fan of Drop box, it is the best way to keep my team all on the same page without having to email things back and forth.