Protecting Wilmette's Memories: The Importance of Local Data Backup

In a community that values heritage like Wilmette, losing decades of family photos to a hard drive crash is a tragedy. I often find that people confuse "syncing" with "backing up." If your photos only exist on your phone and iCloud, you aren't truly protected—if you delete it one place, it's gone from both.

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

To ensure your digital life is safe from hardware failure, I recommend the industry-standard 3-2-1 rule:

• 3 Copies: Keep three separate copies of your most important data.
• 2 Different Media: Use two different storage types (e.g., your computer and an external drive).
• 1 Off-site: Keep one copy in a different physical location, such as a secure cloud provider.