Playing It Safe What if all your computer data was wiped out in a day? Don't panic--it could never happen . . . or could it?

Lately, a recurrent nightmare has ruined my sleep. But tonightI'll sleep well because I finally put those fears to rest. Thenightmare: losing all my personal finance records, plus invoicingdata, accounts receivable, and current work in progress. That wouldspell disaster. Of course, I've known for years that every homebusiness should come up with an off-site scheme for storingcritical information, but I never did anything about it because,really, what was to be done? Cart stuff every other day to amammoth safe-deposit box at a bank? There just was no easysolution, so I suffered the anxiety accompanying the knowledgethat, poof, my business could vaporize in a matter of a few meanminutes.

Picture this: All my financial records are kept inQuicken and, yep, I routinely back up the key files to a Zip drive.I also back up all the other critical files-receivables, work inprogress-to a Zip disk. That's good as far as it goes, but whatif a burglar breaks in and makes off with my computer? For sure,he'll also snag the Zip drive and disks, and where does thatleave me?

And what about a fire? Whoosh, the files I'd need would goup in smoke--and the fire wouldn't thoughtfully spare the Zipback-up.