It is so nice to be back on my own PC. I have a blog post about mastectomy and reconstructive surgery that I’ll post later but I want to share some computer tricks I have learned from the five laptops I have owned. I am not a netbook or “in the Cloud” user, I have too much astrological and word processing-related software on my computer to be able to use Drive or Google docs for all my work-stuff.

I use Carbonite to continually back up my computer so I am never more than a few minutes from a full data back up. I also keep a few files, my book I am working on, and my Endnote library files (Endnote is the bibliography software I use) on a jump drive. This enables me to move right onto another PC. Once on the new computer I can log into my Google profile and Evernote.com and just continue working. If the hard drive needs to be replaced, and yes, I’ve gone through several, I can just reload critical software, download all my data from Carbonite.com and be back in business in a few hours.

What about you, do you not worry about it, are you able to work “in the cloud” or do you have some data portability tips to share?