My Son’s First Hard Drive

 

My son and his idea of a safety net

My 14-year-old son recently purchased his first external hard drive (Seagate of course) – with his own money. First is the key word, as I consider the dozen or more that I have here and there.

Remember when buying an extra storage device was a key milestone in your computer age lifestyle? It always seemed inconceivable that we would be able fill up the ever-increased space we received each time we upgraded to a new workstation, laptop, or device.

These days, almost every individual, even kids, will produce and store more data than we would ever have imagined. Inevitably, we run out of storage space. Then we run out again. Eventually, we have too much data and before you know it, a growing number of hard drives to somehow manage extra storage and backups.

Motives of a 14-year-old may differ from yours

This simple first hard drive purchase sparked an important realization. His primary goal was to get more storage space.

But in addition to individual hard drives, what we really need is a bigger plan for the whole family to protect, store, and backup our personal data.

Heading a full service digital agency, I use standard business practices to protect my own data. In addition to regular backups to multiple hard drive systems, I save as much as I can to cloud storage. Redundancy (more than one copy on more than one hard drive) is key.

Redundancy everywhere is key

Similar practices need to be applied at home. Like business data, we need to protect our photo albums, videos, digital purchases, and other personal data with a simple and easy process that everyone can participate in…

Each computer has its own external hard drives for extra space as needed and local backups. Each computer backs up automatically to WiFi connected hard drives. The WiFi connected hard drives back up to a remote cloud service. The Seagate Personal Cloud products will help you build a foundation with adequate storage and the software you need. If you need more space, check out the Seagate NAS products.

Today, in addition to acquiring your first (or 15th) external hard drive, taking the time to implement a redundant household storage and backup plan is the only way to greatly reduce your risk of lost data.

J. Patrick Forden is CEO of Percepticon Corporation, a brand-focused full service digital agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. Percepticon creates strategic marketing programs, products, and Internet solutions with a client roster ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies.

2015-08-04T22:47:51+00:00

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