Why I Don’t Backup

Put simply, if catastrophe strikes and I lose all of my data, I’m okay with that.

The reasons for keeping backups are myriad, but ultimately all come back to the fact that a person simply cannot afford to lose whatever data they have accumulated. I don’t find myself in that position.

Many people keep all of their important information, including photographs, financial information and more on their computer. It exists as nothing more than bits and bytes, 1s and 0s. For myself, however, that doesn’t apply.

My insurance information, my financial records, and any other important documents all physically exist. I can hold them in my hand, I can photocopy them, and more importantly, if they are ever destroyed, I can get new copies from the relevent institutions.

The other data that exists on my computer primarily takes the form of text-files and MP3s. The text files are all either draft articles that started then promptly gave up on, or published articles. The MP3s are all easily replaceable – if they’re important enough albums, I’ll remember them; if not, then it doesn’t really matter.

I haven’t written any scripts, or customised my Mac in any meaningful way, so there is nothing to lose there.

That just about covers any and all variety of data that I have bar one: images. I don’t take photos very often, and I absolutely detest having my photo taken. As a result, all of the photos that I do have are copies of photos that Rachel has taken. And any photos that Rachel has taken that are worth saving exist on her Facebook profile. I can happily lose all the other screenshots, and saved lolcats without any pain whatsoever.

Ultimately, I looked at the data that I have on my computer, looked at the effort that implementing a worthwhile backup would take, and assessed the benefits of doing so. In my case, the effort outweighed the benefits, and I decided that I can live with the loss of my data.