Battery Backup

What? No Battery Backup!

The other day, I faced every writer's worst nightmare. It used to be that it was impossible for manuscripts to be destroyed unless your house burned down or was burglarized. Nowadays, all it takes is a couple months of forgetting to back things up and one computer glitch. In my case, it was a power surge. My computer was alright, but I lost everything that I was working on. Some of my best work was gone forever!

Right away, I went out and got a battery backup. I was fortunate enough to have backed up a lot of my own writing previously, but I did lose what I was working on. Fifteen of the best pages I have ever written are gone forever. If I had had battery protection, that never would have happened. A battery backup works by stopping voltage fluctuations from disturbing your computer work. If the power goes out, the backup battery turns on before the power supply is disturbed. Not only does the battery backup power stop you from losing what you are working on, but it keeps things running for hours more! Some of the better ups backup batteries can work for more than 5 hours before they need to be recharged. And they can recharge very quickly.

Not Having Battery Backup Can Be Costly

Of course, battery backups vary greatly in price. In that every battery backup promises to do more or less the same thing, it can be tempting to go for the cheapest one that you can find. Don't do that! The batterybackup is your lifeline. If you do not want to get a good battery backup, you should just buy a simple surge suppressor and be done with it. A good surge protector will stop a power surge from destroying your computer hardware. A lousy battery backup, by contrast, will not even do that successfully. If there is one area where you do not want to cut corners, it is in protecting the valuable information on your computer.

Personally, I am almost neurotic in how careful I am with my battery backup. After what I went through, it is little wonder why! Every 6 weeks, I take in the battery backup to get it checked out by professionals. I know that this is a little bit excessive, but I have always thought that extra caution is a good thing. That way, next time the power goes out, it won't destroy my data. Better be safe than sorry isn't it?

(c) copyright Paul Zirka