<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">My 25 y/o daughter Megan woke us up this morning at 5AM with a call that her townhouse in Farmville, VA was on fire. She was fine but standing outside, helpless and not able to retrieve anything as she described the fire to us on a borrowed cell phone ..... saying she was absolutely helpless and in shock watching her belongings burn.<div><br></div><div>This included her MacBook and iPhone. And "everything" including her wallet, car keys, etc.<br><div><br></div><div>At 4:30AM the alarm system went off and the 32 units in her building thought it was just another fire drill. A loud bang on the door and urgent pleas by neighbors made the morning reality more clear to her. She grabbed her cat "Boo" and everything else was left behind.</div><div><br></div><div>By 5:30AM the rural fire departments "finally" arrived and began dousing the fire with hoses. That was one full hour of watching her rather new style building burn.</div><div><br></div><div>Fast forward to 10AM and the <b>Red Cross</b> had arrived and provided food, shelter, and a special debit card for $150 cash. She said they were awesome and very coordinated.</div><div><br></div><div>The neighbors and university students and faculty at Longwood U. all came with money, food, and great support.</div><div><br></div><div>Fast forward to 1PM and the fire marshall allows them to get their most important items out after he clears the building for safe re-entry. Megan sends a text message from her iPhone ( yeah! ) that the iPhone, MacBook and a precious record album collection ( of mine ) were all OK and retrieved. And no people or pets were harmed in the blaze. Her losses included drenched furniture, her bed, and all the food. Very lucky.</div><div><br></div><div>Megan is fine and the prayers of thanks and gratitude are deep and many .... She drove home today and is home with us tonight. And we thank God and all the great people of her town. If you've ever had a scare like this ... it really gets you thinking and thanking.</div><div><br></div><div>=============</div><div><br></div><div>Now to the crux of why I'm sharing my daughter's story. </div><div><br></div><div>Megan had all her data on that MacBook and iPhone .... and <b>she was very lucky</b> to get all back. She had no backups and she knows better ! Ask her dad.</div><div><br></div><div>The building is now condemned with extensive water damage everywhere that fire did not burn. She had years of academic work, patient information ( she is working on her masters degree in speech therapy ), family photos, email, etc ...</div><div><br></div><div>It takes a tragedy like this to <b>really make you think hard</b> about backing up offsite. We talk about it here on the list all the time. And my own family members are getting the message loud and clear.</div><div><br></div><div>At a minimum ... I recommend keeping important files on a flash drive in your pocket or on a key chain. The cost is about $25 for 8GB at WalMart. You can even encrypt that data by creating a sparseimage and password protecting it with Apple Disk Utility:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Geneva, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; "><h1 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: -35px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: -20px; padding-top: 25px; padding-right: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 75px; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; background-image: url(http://images.apple.com/support/iknow/images/dt_bg_howto.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; position: static; z-index: auto; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; "><a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578">http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578</a></span></h1></span></div><div><br></div><div>Next consider offsite automatic backup services such as:</div><div><br></div><div><b>Apple MobileMe</b> <b>iDisk </b>- <a href="http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/idisk.html">http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/idisk.html</a></div><div><b>Mozy </b>- <a href="http://mozy.com/mac-pro">http://mozy.com/mac-pro</a></div><div><b>My Secure Backup</b> - <a href="http://www.patrickcranston.com/mysecurebackup/">http://www.patrickcranston.com/mysecurebackup/</a></div><div><br></div><div>All is well tonight ! She has a new place to live in the town of Farmville already thanks to generous folks at the University .... and is safe again. Hope this helps someone.</div><div><br></div><div>Dave</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>