D Fraser asked:


Having an up to date backup of important photos, files and other data from your computer at home or office is something everyone should have, how ever very few do. How Come? Well at first I thought it might be because no one knew how or that they should do it. How ever that wasn’t the case, the answer seems to be that most people just assume a data loss problem or PC failure won’t happen to them, that is until it’s to late.

In this article I am going to discuss computer backup storage and backup solutions. We’ll look at what media and method to use to store your backup as well as the software to create it.

Save your Money Fancy Features Don’t Make it Better

One of the biggest issues with buying anything technological is buying more features then are needed to get a job done. Why does this occur? Most of the time it’s because we start doing research about the different features available and then start dreaming about how great it would be if the software could do this or that. The reality is we almost never use those technical features, and they end up being as waste of money.

When selecting a form of computer backup storage keep this simple feature free idea in mind. Most times a USB drive (flash drive) or regular old DVD-R’s will get the job done. High tech alternatives such as tape backups and secondary hard drives will just complicate the issue.

Simple Software is the Answer for Easy Backups

Storing the backup you create is the first step, of course before you store it on a piece of media somewhere you need to first create the backup. An easy method of doing this is to just use the standard windows Zip format. This will compress everything, how ever it’s more difficult to keep all of your files up to date this way. Software can make this a lot easier on you and hands off.

Easy to use PC applications like Acronis True image make the backup process a lot easier then doing it manually. Programs like this are automatically integrated to store a backup on a USB drive or even transfer it off site via FTP. Using the backup software is as simple as selecting what files and folders you want backed up and the software takes care of the rest until you want to add new files or folders.

The key here is don’t get to weighted down in fancy features. All this does is slow you down and often you won’t complete your backup because of all the options.

Back it all Up Online

Another alternative for computer backup storage that is becoming very popular is online backup services. This combines the software to make the backup with the storage solution (off site online file storage). The price is right often less then five bucks a month, and the software is about as easy as you can get for making file backups.

If you take one thing away form this article the thing to remember is that you must take action. Not backing up your files today leaves one more day for something to crash and you lose all of your important photos, videos, music and more.

So take the first step today and investigate the best method of computer backup storage for you.



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Niall Roche asked:


How in the world do you decide what type of computer backup software to use? There are many different types of software out there. Some of it will need to be purchased separately, but there are also programs that come bundled with the computer backup hardware that you will be using. While these are not always the best programs, they still get the job done – although without all the usual bells and whistles. They are also likely to be better than some of the programs that you get with external hard drives for example.

Of course, you do not need backup software in order to backup your computer. You can always just go into it with some CDRs or DVDs and manually choose exactly which files to save and which ones to leave behind. However, this can rapidly get tedious and it’s easy to skip over or forget certain files or folders – that’s the very last thing you want to happen in case of a hard drive failure.

There are many benefits to using a proper computer backup package and these are seriously worth considering.

First, automatic setup. The computer will set up the information for backup automatically. Therefore, all you have to do is make sure that there is a disc in the drive. Likewise, you can also split large files across several discs with ease and without constantly having to change configuration information in the backup software itself.

If you’re worried about the confidentiality of your saved backups, you can also encrypt the information. This is especially important if you are going to be using any of the online backup options. You can also compress your data with a data backup program, in order to fit large amounts of data into a small backup space. Backup software will also allow you to choose exactly how much data you want to backup, and how long you are willing for it to take.

Do I have to buy software?

No. There are several programs that you can get for free – or that you already have for free with your new computer. For example, if you have a windows computer, you will have software called Microsoft Backup. This should be installed by default if you have Windows 2000, ME, or XP. You may also have this program available on your system discs if you have a computer that runs Windows 95 or 98.

If you are running a Macintosh system, however, there is also an option available to you. This is the Apple Backup software. This software should be included with whatever operating system you’re running. That way, you can easily make a backup of all the important data on your computer. With an Apple computer, you can back up your information without waiting to get CDs! Apple offers an online backup service called iDisk. The iDisk service allows you to backup up to 100MB of data online! You can also set your iDisk to synchronize between your computer and the online backup – so that you have the most current versions of all your files.

If you don’t like the software that comes with your computer, there are also free software programs that will come with any external hard drives you purchase. These backup programs are generally designed to do only one thing, however. With just a few quick mouse button clicks, you should be able to put all of your computer data onto the external drive.

Make this job easy and save your data! Use some backup software and save yourself a lot of grief and personal time.



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