My grandpa's advice about backups finally bit me in the butt

Back in 2019, my grandpa told me to keep two copies of anything important, one at home and one somewhere else. He was a mail carrier for 30 years and always said people lose photos and letters more than packages. I shrugged it off because my phone and laptop seemed fine. Then last month my apartment building in Portland had a small fire on the second floor, and my unit got water damage. My external hard drive with 8 years of family photos and tax scans was toast. The cloud backup I had only covered half my stuff because I never paid for the full plan. My grandpa's words came back to me while I was sorting through soggy cardboard boxes. Has anyone else ignored simple advice like that and paid for it later? What's the one thing you wish you'd backed up twice?

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lily_ramirez42d ago

Grandpa really was out here playing 4D chess while I was playing checkers with my data. Now I'm the cautionary tale my family brings up at holidays. I had a similar moment when I lost every single recipe my abuela wrote down because I thought "saving them to my phone was enough" and then my phone took a swim in a toilet at a wedding. Not my finest hour, but hey, at least now I back up my backups, and also my backup's backup. Soggy cardboard is a very specific kind of heartbreak, so I feel your pain, but also maybe invest in a fireproof safe for the next grandpa advice dump.