Disaster Preparation using Gadgets

Over the past two days the Geeks have featured a couple tools that can help you prepare for a disaster. First we featured the Dell Multifunction Laser Printer 1815dn followed by two USB drives: Corsair Ultra Rugged and a Imation Clip Flash Drive.

You can use these tools together to prepare for disaster recovery by using the scanning feature of the Dell Multifunction Laser Printer to scan various documents to PDF. The reason we chose this printer is because you do not even have to plug the device into a printer to scan, but you can scan directly to e-mail. Most other multifunction printer/scanner/fax/copiers require special software and a machine with Outlook running, especially in the class and price range of this Dell.

Once you scan all your important documents you can save a copy on Gmail if you have a Gmail account, but you’ll also want to download to a USB drive that you can grab in a hurry. We found a couple USB drives that can resist water, mud and other elements.

In addition to storing the data on Gmail and the USB flash drive, you can additionally store documents using Xdrive or some other online storage place. The Geeks definitely recommend storing your important documents using encryption.

Depending on the size of the scanned documents and USB, you should be able to store all of your documents on the drive and have some room left over. For ideas on what you can use that additional space on the flash drive, check out Lifehacker’s Carry your life on a thumb drive article.