Earlier this year, I learned that my wife was pregnant with our first child, and I was thrilled. Images of memories that were yet to come played thoughout the day. It was going to be a long 40 weeks of waiting.
Times have changed since I was born. My parents kept their photos stored as photo albums and slides and videos on reel-to-reel or videotape.
No more. Everything is digital.
We used to be worried about a fire or flood ruining our photo albums and videos. Now, everything can be wiped out in much less time. A hard drive crash, a accidental deletion, or a virus can take years of memories and make them disappear.
We all agree that backups are good, but few people think about data protection until after it is too late. I think the #1 reason that we choose to roll the dice is the effort involved in remembering and scheduling backups.
I am unorganized by nature. I don't do well with lists and scheduling.
Yet, my son is about to be born, and I wouldn't forgive myself if I lost the memories that this new addition to our family will bring.
I needed something to protect these memories. My requirements were clear:
- Easy to set up
- 100% automatic
- Transparent
- Redundant
- Able to notify me when something was wrong
Nobody wants to ever think about whether or not backups need to happen or have happened. Especially my wife. Unless all 5 requirements were met, I would become obsessed with backups and spend my time protecting memories instead of creating them.
I found my answer: Windows Home Server