Today's Question: What precautions do you recommend for those of us who live in areas prone to lightning? I was reminded of this during a couple of major storms over the past couple of days.
Tim's Answer: This is, to me, a particularly timely question, as I was just enjoying some photos captured in the New York City area by several courageous (or perhaps foolish, at least to some degree) photographers. Just be sure that if a lightning storm approaches you're minding your own safety in addition to that of your equipment.
There is most certainly a very real risk to your computer, hard drive storage, and other electronic devices in the midst of an electrical storm. From the standpoint of potential lightning strikes, the best thing you can do is completely disconnect your computer, external hard drives, and other peripherals from all power sources or other connections (including cable connections to the Internet) that have the potential to transmit the electrical impact of a lightning strike to your equipment.
If you're going to be away from home during a time where you feel lightning is a possibility, I would still take this precaution. At all other times I would make sure you are employing a high-quality surge protector. I wouldn't trust such a surge protector completely, but it is a good "backup" solution for unexpected circumstances.
It is also worthwhile to consider the additional potential risks of a serious thunderstorm. Protection from lightning isn't all that meaningful, for example, if the storm causes a window to break that leads to water damage of your equipment.
Risks of this sort are also a good reminder that an offsite backup of your digital photos can be a big help, especially if that offsite backup is located a good distance away from your primary location.
Ultimately, it is important to protect your digital equipment from the elements. Lightning strikes are obviously a somewhat extreme example, but only one of many potential causes of data loss you want to think about and take steps to avoid.
"There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late'."