Back That Ass(et) Up!

So I was working on tomorrow's post for POV Comic and I needed to pull some elements from a few of my past comics (to use in the background). When I tried to open one of my Adobe Illustrator files I got an error message. I hadn't opened this particular file in CS5.1, so I thought it might be a compatibility issue. I quickly fired up Illustrator CS3 and tried to open the file again - different error - same result.

It was at this moment that I almost got very sad. Note that I said ALMOST.

I keep 3 types of data backups. That's right... three.

1. I use a mirrored hard drive configuration to protect against hardware failure.
2. I use Windows 7 Ultimate and take advantage of the "System Protection" options which keeps "Previous Versions" of all my files.
3. I use Carbonite - Just in case of Fire/Flood/Theft etc.

I've never had to fall back on Carbonite, but it makes me feel a lot better knowing that it's there. I have done some test recoveries from Carbonite and they've all worked well.

Today, I was able to use the "Previous Versions" option in Windows 7 to recover a working copy of my Illustrator file and that made me quite happy.

If you're not using a data backup solution, I highly recommend that you start! There are plenty of easy ways to keep you files backed up... Don't wait until it's too late!