10 replies to this topic

[eleothegreat]

In this day and age, our computers are as important to us as food. A lot of depend on it to make money, and a lot of us use it for personal reasons such as file storage and communication purposes as well. But what if your computer simply conks out, what if the system crashes or what if a disaster happens and completely totals your laptop or PC? When this happens, the first thing that we usually think about isn't even about the hard drive - we usually worry about our files.

After all, we can easily replace a PC, but we cannot replace important data and documents that have been lost. Unless they were backed up. There are plenty of back up methods that you can use, but the safest and most secure method in doing so is through Online Data Backup Services. There are plenty of these all over the web, and you can store your files and data through the internet to a remote and secure server.

If you have a huge part of your life inside your computer - then maybe it's high time to start backing up your files now.

Have you?

[Michael]

I use a Mac and it comes with IDisk which backs up my documents. It also has Mobile Me which will back up bookmarks, passwords, programs, and everything else. I had a dead computer last year and when I got the new laptop I was so worried I'd spend weeks trying to get all the information back. Instead, when I opened the Mac it asked if I wanted to sync with my Mobile Me account and I said yes. All my sites were put into Safari, all bookmarks there, all passwords, there etc. It was the most painless experience I have ever had and one of the main reasons I love Macs.

There is also a program called Evernote which I love that allows me to upload 500MB worth of storage to their server monthly. Their yearly fee is 45 USD. Evernote then takes my stuff, dissects it and allows me to use search in ways I have never seen. It is really an information program but with 500 MB a month, I use it for back up as well. I keep all my documents there.

http://www.evernote.com/

[Thaimo]

eleothegreat, on 19 September 2009 - 07:02 PM, said:

maybe it's high time to start backing up your files now.

That's right. Unfortunately for me, like just about everything else I learned the hard way. A few years ago I had a hard drive crash and the drive could not be repaired. I lost everything and had to start from scratch. After that experience I bought an external hard drive and everything important gets backed up on it.

[Bob]

Like Thaimo, I have an external harddrive that's hooked to the computer via a usb cable. Extremely easy to use. And I don't have to worry about paying some website to store the stuff or if that website will always be around.

For really important stuff (photos and music for me), I copy the stuff to dvd's once a year or so and then store the dvd's at the other end of my house (on the theory that, should a fire occur, the whole house probably won't burn!).
Plus, a lot of the important stuff is on my laptop which I take with me when I travel to Thailand.

[Thaimo]

Bob, on 20 September 2009 - 04:27 AM, said:

I don't have to worry about paying some website to store the stuff or if that website will always be around.

There is a solution to that. Instead of paying a web site to store your stuff, you could simply create an Email address and send your important files to yourself. I doubt that Hotmail or Gmail are going to go under any time soon.

[eleothegreat]

Thaimo, I have learned the hard way as well. My laptop crashed, luckily, the tech guy was able to restore and save a lot of my photos and other documents. I still have them now. I have learned to take plenty of caution, though. I use the computer regularly for my clothing and diaper business, so I have a lot of business/finance files like computations and the like. At the same time, all the photographs of my 11 year old daughter is digital, and they're all stored here.

With a kid, I'm more prone to take a lot of photos (hundreds monthly!), so I burn photos on DVDs monthly, and they're labeled and stored according to that order. I also save them on an external hard drive. I just actually read about online data backup, and I'm currently thinking of trying it out. Just wanted to know what you think.

[lvdkeyes]

You can save photos on programs like Picasa.com or Multiply.com.

[eleothegreat]

Yes. I have them on Multiply, Friendster and even Facebook.

[Bob]

Thaimo, on 20 September 2009 - 08:36 AM, said:

There is a solution to that. Instead of paying a web site to store your stuff, you could simply create an Email address and send your important files to yourself. I doubt that Hotmail or Gmail are going to go under any time soon.

Not sure I have the time to send emails with 130 gig of attachments. Plus, I'd guess that hotmail or gmail may have some storage limits?

[Thaimo]

Bob, on 20 September 2009 - 02:09 PM, said:

Not sure I have the time to send emails with 130 gig of attachments.

Yes, 130 gigs might be a bit much, but you could at least send your most vital files, the ones you absolutely cannot lose, unless you have scads of those as well. But if you have that much you have to save, then an external hard drive is probably your best solution.

[smoker]

Gmail is by far the easiest and most secure way to back up your documents. I've been doing that for three years and haven't even gotten close to my storage limits.