The inspiration for this is the hundreds (nay, thousands) of people that have lost data. Despite the dropping price of external hard drives and content management systems that make backing up as easy as 1-2-3, people lose data. In my case, I've lost data from my computer as well as from old blogs. Right now, I'm using a new-ish content management system called Habari which doesn't have a plugin that will automate the task of backing up my blog's database. So, I'm going to go into the phpMyAdmin (web frontend for my MySQL database management) to export my database files. If you're reading this, stop and make sure you have done the following:

  1. Have a current backup of select folders from your personal computer on an external hard drive or online. I recommend Acronis True Image 2010 for backing up your personal files or making snapshots/images of your computer's hard drive.
  2. Do you blog? How recent are your backups and do you have a backup of the backup? I'd recommend backing up your database as well as the actual files that bring the blog to life

With that, I've done my piece to save someone's day from going to pieces. :) Enjoy this rainy day!