Back Up!

It seems I am destined to buy computers with a four year shelf life.

My HP laptop started doing 'funny things' a few months ago and, from experience, alarm bells started ringing.
So I started to back up my files.
Then all went quiet and I thought it was just a false alarm.
But no, a few days ago............POOF!
The dreaded blue screen.
Optimistically I took it into the repair shop. I always do this and always I get bad news and a bill for $50.
This time was no different.

So now I have a new one. Not another HP (you have had three chances, guys) but a Toshiba.
Learning a new operating system, Windows 7, reloading other programs and reestablishing 'favorites' is a time consuming task.
At least I have my precious files including photos and word documents.
The only exception are emails. I looked at backing these up a few times but it was a quite a convoluted procedure which I sadly postponed. But at least I had backed up my email address book.
So the lesson to be learned from all this is BACK UP!

External HDD's are cheap and easy to use. USB sticks even more so.
Put aside an hour or so every week or two and just do it!