Data Backup

One of the most important and most neglected areas of computing is data backup. Backing up your data should be one of your highest priorities along with computer maintenance and computer security. Loss of your personal data such as documents, photographs, and music can occur in many ways. One of the most common causes of data loss is hard drive failure. For whatever reason, a good percentage of computer users are under the impression that it is not possible to be a victim of a failed hard drive resulting in complete data loss. It does happen and it will happen to you eventually. Sometimes you will have a warning of a hard drive failing. You may hear the drive begin to make strange clicking noises. The drive may begin to run very slow while booting up the computer or copying data. Other times there will be no warning. You will boot up your computer only to be told that no operating system is installed or no boot device can be found. Other causes of data loss can occur from power surges, power spikes, virus attacks, and lets not forget about theft and fire damage. There are many data backup options, which I have outlined below.

External Media: Some options of external media are CD’s, USB Flash Drives, Zip Disks, and external hard drives. A CD is a good choice if you are backing up less that 650 megabytes of data, which is what most CD’s are capable of holding. Anything over 650 megabytes of data can be backed up to a USB flash drive, which can be purchased in many different size capacities to suit your needs. Additionally you can purchase an external hard drive that plugs directly to your computer, this is also a common method of data backup.

Online Backup: Online backup options have become the most popular and efficient way of backing up your data for a couple of reasons. One of the main reasons is that the risk of catastrophic data loss as a result of fire, theft, or any other disaster is pretty much eliminated. Say for instance, you use an online backup service, your home is burglarized and your computer is stolen, taking all of your important data with it. With an online backup service, hook up your new computer when you get it, run the online backup services application, and restore your data to your computer. Easy as that. If you would have backed up to an external hard drive and that got stolen as well, then your important data went with it. Read on for some online backup options, which I recommend. I have listed these in the order in which I recommend them.

Jungledisk: With Jungledisk you can securely backup your files, restore data if lost or corrupted, and protect all of your computers for one monthly fee, starting at just $2.00 per month.

Carbonite: Carbonite offers secure file transmission and storage and easy file recovery for $59.00 per year, which is about $4.91 per month.

Mozy: Mozy allows you to backup your data and restore when needed. Home user solutions starting at $5.99 per month.