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Tool: External hard drives

By Becky McCray

Western Digital My Book driveExternal hard drives are my new favorite tool for small businesses.

Last year, I bought a Western Digital My Book. It cost me under $100, and it’s small enough to carry around to my various computers. This one holds 500 gb, and that’s more than enough for me, even with my digital photography habit.

The hard drive in my laptop crashed this week, so I was very, very glad to have that backup.

Other models work with your wireless network, so you can copy files to and from them without hooking up any cables.

If you don’t have an external hard drive in your small business, take a look. It might solve a big problem for you.

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
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  • In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
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  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020

March 24, 2009 Filed Under: tools Tagged With: review

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  1. Daria Steigman says

    March 25, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    Hi Becky,

    I’d add one more big advantage for a small business to have use external hard drives: a repository for bookkeeping files, invoices, and other sensitive information.

    A few years ago I realized that my (at the time) sole laptop, which I was taking all over the place, contained everything. Sure, I backed up the data, but if the laptop were stolen the thief would have my EIN, my SSN, a snapshot of my business finances, and a lot of other confidential information. So I moved anything sensitive to an external hard drive.

    Now I’m doing to go backup my data. :)

    Best,
    Daria

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