Everyone has a story. Word documents accidentally deleted. Music files lost. Pictures and videos — gone.
My story about losing some valuable things stored on my computer happened a couple years ago. My old laptop was getting bogged down in memory, so I bought an external hard drive and transferred all of my old pictures to it. I also moved my Word documents over. The laptop was in serious memory trouble, so I wasn’t just copying them — I was moving them. This presented a couple of problems. The first was that I couldn’t access my pictures — to upload into a blog post, for example. The second was the disaster. I dropped the external hard drive. They are small and delicate, and even though it only fell from my lap to the floor, that was all it took. It’s ruined. Two years of my photos and my writing — GONE!
Since then my husband and I have both gotten new laptops, so we’re okay memory-wise, for now. But a glitch in his computer recently caused all of his itunes music files to disappear. He had backed up, but it had been a month, so he missed some files when he restored.
What to do?
I’ve seen online backup, and that made sense to me. Put it somewhere on another server where it would be protected, so that even if my home (and computer and/or external storage device) was destroyed by flood or fire, it would still be safe.
I installed F-Secure on my computer quickly and easily and it set out to analyze and backup my files. This part took a long time — a really long time — and at first I wondered if something was wrong. But then I looked at their help files and they were indeed helpful. They said that the initial backup could take days. After a couple of days, I checked the option to maximize the resources devoted to this process, and made sure that my computer would not go into sleep mode, which it usually does when unattended, and it made great progress continuing to analyze and backup my files — creating a back-up system if the inevitable ever occurred.
After the initial backup, it works automatically behind the scenes so that you don’t have to worry about remembering to back-up your files. And once the big task of getting all your files is taken care of, it’s simple and easy (in fact, even while all those files were being stored, it never interfered with the speed or efficiency of my computer).
We have 10 copies of F-Secure Online Backup software (which includes the first year of storage and works for PC or Mac platforms) to give away to a US or Canadian resident. Please leave a comment letting us know what would horrify you most about losing your data (or what DID horrify you most when you had a tragic loss).
We’ll announce the winners on August 15.
You can earn additional entries if you subscribe to our Feed, sign up for our 5M4M Newsletter, add our 5M4Giveaways button in your sidebar, write a post and link back to this contest on your blog, and spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, or email! Leave an extra comment for each one of those you do.
Written by 5 Minutes for Mom Contributing Editor Jennifer from Snapshot and 5 Minutes for Books
What would cut to the bone would be losing all my blog friends or all my pictures. The latter being worse.
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I’m not sure which would be worse, losing years worth of pictures of my family, or my husband (a preacher) losing all of the work he has put into his studying, preaching, and counseling over the years.
If I don’t win this, I certainly need to look at purchasing this for my hubby.
I am a subscriber
I just dealt with backing up my files two weeks ago and my husband and I were talking about investing in something like this for the future. Thanks for a chance to win!
I am subscribed to your feed.
I have your button linked on my blog!
I’m a professional photographer and have been using external hard drives to back up my work. I had no idea they were so fragile! Yikes!!! Losing my own family pictures would be devastating, but knowing I had lost someone elses would be even worse. We’ve been looking into backup options, and this seems like a good one.
I’m subscribing! Thanks for this giveaway.
Signed up for your newsletter!
Oh, this is EXACTLY what I need. I have thousands of pictures on my computer, and I would be sick if I lost them. I’m also a blog designer, so it would be terrible to lose all of the work that I’ve done.
Thanks so much!
I am a subscriber…
…and I have you button in my sidebar….
PHOTOS, for sure!!
I’m a feed subscriber too.
Definitely the photos – lots of family photos. We have recently been transferring our photos – both from my laptop and husbands desktop to an external hard drive. I had not even thought about dropping it and them getting ruined that way.
I am also a subscriber.
Pictures!!!! Music!!! Work Files!!! It would be disaster:(
I subscribe
my thesis. i would DIE!!!!
What horrified me was that all my poetry would be lost.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I subscribe via email.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I wouldn’t be able to breathe if I lost all of my pics. I have most of them backed up on picasa web, but not all – I would seriously cry. I have looked into these online backups, too, but have never gotten brave enough to try one out – thanks for the heads up about this one, and thanks for the chance to win!
I subscribe via email at jill and mike2 at yahoo, thanks!
I also get your newsletter, thanks! Oh, I forgot about my music-I would cry if over 13GB of music disappeared (and I do not have music file backed up anywhere-thanks for the reminder)
Your button is on my sidebar, too, thanks!
tweet, thanks! http://twitter.com/idahojill/status/2900424438
My photo’s – it would kill me.
Thanks for another GREAT giveaway.
I’m an email subscriber – thanks.
I’ve got your button on my left sidebar – thank you.
I get your news letter.
I have your button.
I would be so lost and heart broken if I lost my photo’s and writings. I have lost them all before and it just makes ya sick!
I would be broken hearted if I lost my photos. I actually back them up now because I had a bit of a scare awhile back. Thought I’d lost 3 months worth of pics of my baby. Oh. my. it was horrible. Thankfully, I found them.
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I would be most upset about losing all the photos on the computers. I copy most to a disc but ones that my family sends me never seem to make it to the disc. I would hate to lose those.
I subscribe.
oh, i need this…terrified of losing info!
i subscribe.
i’m horrified of losing pics i haven’t printed out, or hubby losing research documents
i am subscribed to your feed
I am subscribed.
Our only computer crashed not once, but twice, and I lost all my documents, emails, letters, pictures, everything of mine. Dell was able to restore some of his. And the crazy part of it all, he still doesn’t back up his stuff! And he used to work in computers! AAAGGGHHH!!!
My heart would break (or actually stop) if I lost the pictures from our son’s first year of life. Since we found out I was expecting our son nearly died 3 times, which did much to impress upon us the frailty of life and God’s mercy in sparing our son to us. One week after our son’s 1st birthday his Papa died…those pictures are the only way my son will ever know his Grandfather. Each of those pictures are so precious and truly irreplaceable. I have an external hard drive, but didn’t realize if I dropped it I could loose everything. That scars me. This system would be a blessed safe guard.
I follow your blog through Google on my own blog site.
I would hate to loose all my photos and digi-scrapping stuff! I have some backed up, but not all! I should really get on that!
I’ve got you on my google reader! I don’t miss a post!
Two things – losing my pictures would be terrible . . .the worst. Another loss would be all the financial statements from my home business.
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I did have this happen with my laptop almost 2 years ago. Everything was lost, pictures, music, files, everything. It’s devastating. I got this empty hole in my stomach for weeks knowing I should have done something to protect myself better. I would love the chance to win this and not lose my photography again.
I subscribe to the feed.
I get the newsletter.
I have your button in my sidebar.
My hard drive died last year. It was under warranty so it wasnt the money- it was the pictures. My mother was terminally ill- and I had all my digital pictures saved on my laptop without a backup. I was devasted when the laptop crashed. And even more devasted when mom passed away this March.
I now have my pictures on a thumb drive but I am so afraid I will lose my purse or something else drastic will happen.
Jill.watkins@gmail.com
I do some freelance graphic design from home, and although I’ve got an external drive which backs up every hour, if something fries the computer & the drive I’d be toast. I’ve been looking for an online service but didn’t know where to start! So thanks for this review!
I sub to the newsletter.
Jill.watkins@gmail.com
I get the feed with Bloglines.
Jill.watkins@gmail.com
Recently, I lost my computer this year and I didn’t have backup for digital photos and genealogy. Virus’s suck!
gahome2mom/at/gmail/dot/com
i would hate to lose all our wedding/honeymoon photos :-/
I tend to backup pictures (since I’m transferring them on a regular basis), but I’d hate to lose financial files and my code base from jobs. I don’t archive those as frequently as I should.
I am a subscriber.
Would love this!
I subscribe
I follow via google reader
I have your button on my blog
Pictures and letters to and from my husband while he was in Afghanistan.
I am a subscriber.
Oh, the pictures… all the pictures!
It would truly horrify me to lose the pictures I have of my children, because I don’t have any hard copies of them from when they were little. Their father (aka, the “Sperm Donor”) wouldn’t let me have any when I left him & got divorced, and they were stored in the attic of HIS parent’s house as we were living in a 4 room apartment in that house…. So they are the only ones I have!
Thanks for the chance to win this – it is amazing!
I’m an email subscriber to your feed.
I am signed up to receive your 5M4M Newsletter (and love it).
I have your button on my sidebar.
My laptop is on the fritz and that is where I store all my twins’ pictures and videos, I would cry non-stop if I lost those. I need to back up the data.
member (dot) thao (at) gmail.com
Your button is here
http://wondertwinadventures.blogspot.com
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http://twitter.com/twinpowells/status/2913694421
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I subscribe to email updates
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OK, so I’m on my son’s old laptop because when I changed the RAM in my trusty desktop I accidentally killed it (boo hoo because my son worked at school for a summer saving up to buy me that computer–double boo hoo–I’m not getting rid of it!!) So anyhow, he gave me his old laptop as a back-up a couple of years ago when he purchased a new one for his self. There were a lot of pictures, songs, and MUCH WORK RELATED STUFF I would love to have back but haven’t asked anyone to suck out of my hard drive. If I had a back up, I’d never have to worry about losing precious memories or less importantly
work related stuff again!! No more sleepless nights fretting . . . no more walking past the extra hard drive aisle at Sam’s (lol) and thinking just get one!!
OK, I rambled–(just shows how much INFO I could use BACK UP for!!) lol
Have a great day!
PS–I subscribe to your email lsparamo AT gmail DOT com, and I’d put your button on my blog, but can’t find the linky thing all typed out to do it.
I seriously need to start backing up… this would be so helpful.
Nell
I sub to the feed
I’d hate to lose all my “favorites”.
I’m a subscriber via Google Reader
I have lost pictures before…which was hard, but now there is a lot more important documents…pictures/business stuff x 2/and lots of information. I really would be lost with out all that I currently have on my computer. Thanks for the giveaway!
I subscribe via google reader!
I receive the 5M4M newsletter!
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I would be beyond horrified if I lost my photos. They’re all on my computer–my daughter’s birth and just everything that I’ve documented this past year. I truly would never get over it if I lost those pictures. I’m a very visual person, and they help me remember everything.
I subscribe to your feed…
…and I get your newsletter!
We lost all the pictures of our twins from the day they were born and pictures taken of them up until they were several months old
(I get your newsletter!)
What would horrify me the most, like most everyone who has left a comment, would be the pictures of my family and friends. I have YEARS of my life stored on my computer in ‘electronic’ photo albums. If I were to lose those, I’d be losing years of my life! Also — I’m an aspiring writer working on my first project. To lose that document would be draining!
I subscribe.
Losing my pictures.
I have been thinking about online back-up a lot lately. I would be devastated if my computer were to crash because I would lose most of our family memories – the pictures and scrapbook pages that I have created over the last four years. These are things I want to show my children and I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose those things.
photos, music, writing—– MEMORIES….I would be so sad to lose these things!
losing pics
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Wow I never knew the external hard drives could be so easily broken. My computer crashed once and luckily my husband was able to pull stuff from my hard drive but it was so much work and it has never been the same. This would be so great!
I’m a subscriber
I would be destroyed if I lost all the photos I’ve take over the years.
I have a lot of work documents on my computer and it would be a nightmare if my up to date copies got destroyed1
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i have pictures of my grandson mverno@roadrunner.com
losing all my pictures
i would die if i lost my daughter’s baby pictures….argh.
Definitely losing my pictures would be horrible, thanks for a chance to win this!
I think I would die if I lost all my music OR all my embroidery designs!
I subscribe with Google Reader
I posted about this giveaway on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/posted.php?id=1291965387&share_id=136074786538&comments=1&ref=nf#s136074786538
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/bsw529/status/2941939235
We’ve been talking about getting a backup for our computer but we’ve never had the money. This would be perfect for us! I would be totally devastated to lose all of our family pics.
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I have your button too!
I actually had a hard drive crash a few months ago. It was about six weeks after I finally bought an external hard drive and backed up. Thank goodness.
I would have lost all the pictures and videos of my daughter from the day we received her until now. I would also have lost the hours of work I had put into my recipe collection.
I have your button on my blog.
I subscribe through Google Reader.
I would be horrified to lose my pictures
I’d hate to lose my photos and videos the most. I have nightmares about it happening, actually. We have an external hard drive that we periodically back up to, but this would be nice. Thanks,
Megret
musesofmegret (at) gmail (dot) com
I subscribe.
I’ve lost everything twice & it sucked. It is awful when you realize that you lost pictures & videos that you can never get back.
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Losing my photos and videos would be awful… I would cry! And throw a tantrum, lol. It would make me feel like I had lost something irretrievable…
Great giveaway, thank you!
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I have your button!
I”d be heartbroke to loose my pictures, recipes and favorites
hawkes(at)citlink.net
I’m a subscriber
hawkes(at)citlink.net
oh, I am in need of this for sure!
We have all our pictures, old ones with family that is no longer with us, and brand new ones, showing weddings and new babies. IF we ever lost them I’d be SO upset. I’ve always wanted a backup system, but one time we TRIED copying things we felt we needed, and when we NEEDED them, evidently we hadn’t saved enough of each file, so couldn’t get them back. Maybe this backup plan would work a lot better.
Yeah, I had a tragic loss over the winter, just before New Year’s Eve. I lost all my cool recipes, my stuff from school (I just got my Masters degree) and other stuff that was just not replaceable. I learned the hard way to back stuff up – save EVERYTHING somewhere else! Still, one can’t be too careful. I could sure use another backup source. This would be great – thanks for the opportunity!
I’m a subscriber!
I am a digital scrapbooker and would absoulutely die to loose all of my 100s of pages!! I REALLY need to print them too but I have been looking at online backup services too. This is a great chance!
I subscribed to your feed.
Losing my bookmarks, that was the worst.
I would be heartbroken to lose all my kid’s pictures…
I subscribe..
…and have a button on my blog.
my husband makes electronic music and I’d be horrified if we lost any of the songs stored on the comp!
great giveaway item.
This seems like just yesterday…June 2008, the day we were leaving to go to New York; noticed I needed to clear my camera memory card, so I downloaded onto my computer. Nine days later upon return from our trip, my computer had issues and one thing led to another; major issue ocurred. Tried over the phone help; took it to be repaired; LOST EVERYTHING! I had 4 years of photo’s that I never properly backed up, and only have samplings of actual photo’s that were developed during that time. Nothing I could do…cry, get upset…that my son’s precious photo’s/memories from 8 years to 12 year’s old were…gone…
I subscribe to your blog, and I have your link on my sidebar too.
Thanks for the reminder, as I will have to purchase some kind of reliable backup too!
I have no backup of my photos. Yes, I know how foolish that is.
I think it must be very useful for backing up all our files.
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grab ur button
spread the word in twitter @momsfocus
spread the word in face book Rajee Pandi
would love to win
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button on sidebar
I never back up my computer though I really should because I have tons of pics (especially my daughter’s wedding) and knitting/crochet patterns that I would so hate to lose.
What would horrify me most would be losing my photos! You just can’t replace those!
I’m a proud subscriber!
I would love to win this as I’ve lost my completed computer system 3 times in the past 2 years. so this would definitely be useful
thanks
lagrande2tall4u@hotmail.com
Losing my pictures of course. I have already lost many due to a fire years ago and also lost pictures on my computer. I know what it is like to lose them and dread if it were to happen again.
My wife has started a bookkeeping business. This would be a good thing to have.
Currently, we back up everything on a second computer as well as a memory stick, but since it is only every so often, we just lost all our billing for our consulting. It took hours to do!
I would be horrified if I lost everything like my songs and my pictures of my family and children!
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I tweeted: http://twitter.com/pricousins/status/3216028760
I have the button on my blog.
I need this badly…I had a hard drive crash on my laptop about a year ago..I was normally pretty good about backing up my data, but I still lost some irreplaceable pics and journals:( I was devastated!
Thanks for the chance to win so maybe this won’t ever happen to me again!
I tweeted about the giveaway:
http://twitter.com/JoeyfromSC/status/3218004685
I am subscribed via email:
ajoebloe(at)gmail(dot)com
I am also subscribed to the newsletter:
ajoebloe(at)gmail(dot)com
http://joebloe1116.blogspot.com/
added your button to my blog
I would hate to lose my pictures.
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signed up for the newsletter
Button on my blog.
My daughter-in-law wiped my last computer clean trying to help. jelly15301@gmail.com
E-mail subscriber. jelly15301@gmail.com
Newsletter subscriber. jelly15301@gmail.com
[...] F-Secure Online Backup Software at 5 Minutes for Giveaways [...]
I would hate to lose all my pictures
Thank you for the chance
tatertot3741@hotmail.com
I’ve always found the loss of family digital photos to be devastating. Please accept my entry. Thank you.
What would be the worst for me is losing all of the thousands of pictures that I have stored of my family. I have pictures of the birth of all 4 of my children as well as each year of birthday celebrations. Just the thought of losing all of that makes me sad.
I haven’t lost any data luckily before, but I would be devasted if I lost my home videos. Thanks for the great giveaway.
I would love to win this!
i’m worried the most about my business computer – it has quick books and all my business info
this sounds like what we’ve been needing!
subscriber
I get your newsletter!
your button’s on my blog
I would hate losing all off the pictures that I have on there, I would also be devastated to lose all the music I have downloaded. Thanks for the chance!
Would love to have this!
I would love to have this!
Losing all of my school work would horrify me.
what would horrify me would losing all my pics and info.
It would be terrible, if I lost my photos
losing all those memories of my wife and child
I would be horrified to loose all are pictures. They are all only on our computer.We don’t have copies.
losing pictures of my kids!!
I would hate to lose all the pictures of my son’s first year of life, and all the translations I did in grad school.
Would lose all the pictures of family, friends, etc as well as all my school documents!
thanks!
what would horrify me most would be losing my pictures. I literally have thousands!
madamerkf at aol dot com
id be horrified to lose all my pics
Unfortunately been there..lost all my music and pics. My backups were not completely..had problems. Asked HP for help and bam hard drive crash!! Luckily had most music on my Ipod. Don’t wish it on anyone. Online back up would be fantastic. Thanks so much for the giveaway.
Nobody want to lose their pictures!
What would horrify me most about losing my data is knowing that I could have prevented such an event from occurring but didn’t.
I subscribed to your feed.
I signed up for your newsletter.
id be horrified to lose family photos
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http://twitter.com/klp1965/status/3310917334
I would lose so many family photos as well as electronic music files.
I subscribe to your feed.
Your button is on my blog.
I dont want to loose picture of my kids
I would loose alot if anything was to happen to my computer from pictures of my kids and great grandparents and other distance relatives that are no longer with us. as well as my geneolgy trees that I am working for my family. I just subscribed to your feed so I can stay updated
I lost the video of my daughters first month.
Just give it to me.
Losing all my pictures would be worse.
The worst was that I lost several years worth of pictures