Monday, November 24, 2008

Computer Backup Storage

By Ada Denis

Backing up your personal and important data on your PC is something that everyone should do but very few actually take the time to do it. Why? Maybe it's because they don't know how, or possibly it's because they've never experienced what it's like to lose important files and never get them back.

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.

Don't Spend a Lot of Money on Fancy Gadgets

The biggest trap that we can all fall into when shopping for anything technology related is the trap of buying more features then we need. How does this happen? Well simple, we start reading about all these neat features and think how we could put them to work, the bad news is that we very rarely ever take advantage of any of these so called nifty features.

When it comes to computer backup storage keep it simple. Consider using a USB jump drive or just dvd's. I'd suggest staying away from second hard drives, tape backups and other high tech alternatives.

Simple Software will Do

So storing the backup your create is one step, but creating that backup is another. You can do something as simple as zip up all your files using the windows compression utility and just burn that to a DVD. How ever software can make the process a lot cleaner.

Simple desktop applications like Acronis True Image or Genie backup manager will provide you with a simple interface to pick and choose which files and folders you want to backup, and even integrate the transfer process to a USB drive, dvd's or even off site FTP storage.

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.

Consider Doing it All 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.

About the Author:

No comments: