Ouch.

Much like going to the dentist, backing up your data is something you know you should do regularly, yet regularly gets forgotten.

A wiser man than I once said:

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

In today’s day and age, Ben Franklin’s statement could also include “…and losing your data”, because believe me, at some point in your computer life, be it through hardware failure, theft or “Oh shit, I hit the wrong key!” it will happen.

(I feel qualified to say this as I used to run a data backup service)

And to bring us back to the dentist analogy, when it does go wrong, you know it’s likely to cost you a small fortune (think circa $2K for a dead hard drive).

Why you shouldn’t be using a USB drive

You’ve probably discovered the idea of using a removable USB drive by now. I like them because they’re simple, and they do solve the immediate issue of duplicating your data. For my mind though, they offer a false sense of security.

Sure, you’ve got a copy of your data, but unless you are super vigilant and doing your backups every night, and then taking that USB drive somewhere away from your home or office, a fire or theft is still going to leave you back at square one.

Look Out, Here Comes A Time Saving Tip!

Here’s a much simpler idea: Online Backup. Download the client software, tell it what you want to backup and when, and you’re done. No really – that’s it; your data is automatically backed up at whatever interval you set, whilst also being offsite and far away from any localised threats you may experience.

As far as choices of online backup services go, there are many. I currently use a free service from Mozy; ideal for a single PC, it allows up to 2GB of data to be backed up (rising to US$4.95/month for unlimited data). A business oriented version called MozyPro is also available, priced from US$3.95/month; it allows you to back up multiple PC’s and servers.

If you’re looking closer to home, there is also a company called Carbonite, offering an unlimited plan for AUD$71.99/ year. If you have more than approx 3.5GB of data, Carbonite is the better value offering; they also have an offer running until the end of January: sign up for a year and get two extra months for free.

Yes, there’s a catch…

Just a quick heads-up when using an online backup service for the first time – you will need a decent internet usage plan, plus a bit of time, depending on how much data you wish to upload, for the first backup to complete.

Got a data backup service you use that you’d like to recommend? Have a data loss horror story you’d like to pass on? Tell us all about it in the comments box below.

Photo: Topato