Backing up your hard drive is something you should do regularly, but because of forgetfulness, the unpleasantness, or just plain laziness, you put it off. Before you know it, the drive takes a dive, and all your work files, emails, downloaded music, and digital family photos are gone for good.
why don't we back up more often? Of more than 2,000 adults polled, a recent study by Seagate and Harris Interactive found that nearly 50 percent don't back up their drives. The reason? A full 35 percent of participants said they had no idea how. And that's why companies such as HP, Seagate, and Western Digital are developing ways to make backing up your hard drive a one-touch process -- or, better yet, a no-touch process that happens in the background while you work on your other projects. Though you have a number of ways to safeguard your data, none are perfect. We recommend finding a method that best suits your needs and work style -- and that the procedure be no-brainer simple so you'll actually do it. Here are some of the best options. The Cost for backing up your data The most common method of backing up data is to employ a secondary hard drive connected to your computer, either internally or externally. Hard drives can deliver massive data storage capacities, from less than 100GB to more than a terabyte, at a low per-gigabyte cost. When shopping for a second drive, pick one that offers at least twice the capacity of your current drive -- you'll want the room to grow. A second drive enables you to create a mirror image of your primary one, making an exact copy of the entire drive. That way, if your primary disk fails, you can easily restore your computer with all your current data and apps. You can add an internal hard drive, which involves opening your PC and installing a drive in an available 3.5-inch slot. (The procedure is pretty simple, if you're comfortable cracking open your PC's case.) With an internal drive, you can also configure it in a RAID 1 set-up that maintains an automatically mirrored copy of your primary drive. Note that RAID wasn't designed with average consumers in mind, so setting it up is not particularly intuitive. For the sake of keeping things plug-and-play simple, we recommend using an external drive instead, connected via USB 2.0 or FireWire. Another reason external drives are better options is that they're inherently portable. (Some more than others, though: Drives designed for the desktop are bulkier than mobility-specific 2.5-inch models.) That means you can transport your backup files by simply unplugging your external drive and taking it to another location. To get the most from an external drive, you'll want to seek out useful backup software. Many external drives that advertise a backup solution as one of their features include software that allows you to schedule automatic data backups, and Windows XP and Vista have simple backup utilities built right into the operating system. If neither of these options satisfies, you can download free backup apps (or buy a commercial one). If you have a network of computers in your home, consider backing them up with a network-attached-storage (NAS) device. Besides being able to share content such as media files among computers, you can also back up all machines (both Windows and Mac) on the network. Some NAS drives can connect to the Internet, functioning as a server that lets you access your data from anywhere. NAS devices are available from a range of vendors: Hewlett-Packard, Iomega, LaCie, Maxtor, Western Digital, and other makers of hard drives and networking devices. More advanced NAS options are just around the corner. HP is rolling out its MediaSmart Server NAS, a home storage device built around Microsoft's Windows Home Server software. The first product to use the new OS, the MediaSmart can hold up to eight terabytes of data using four internal hard drive bays and USB expansion slots. You can remotely access the content stored on the MediaSmart from any PC with a Web browser, and the Microsoft OS delivers robust backup and file-sharing options. CD & DVDs Backing up to CDs or DVDs is a good option mainly for those who want to safeguard just particular files and folders, not an entire hard drive. That's because optical discs have much smaller capacities: A CD holds only 650MB, a DVD holds 4.7GB, and a double-layer DVD holds 8.5GB. The benefit to backing up to optical discs is ubiquity. All new PCs have disc burners, and the discs themselves are readable by any PC (they're also very inexpensive when bought by the spindle). And, if properly stored and good quality media is purchased, an optical disc should last at least 50 years. The big downside, though, apart from the limited capacity: You can't set optical burners to automatically back up your files on a schedule. If you plan to perform frequent backups, consider using rewritable discs. Unless you want to create an archive of your files throughout time, you can reuse the same disc by writing over it -- you won't have to constantly purchase new discs. Like with an external hard drive, you'll still need good software help to make the backup process as painless as possible. Handy Backup supports DVD+ and DVD- (including double-layer), as well as DVD-RAM. Handy Backup can automatically erase rewritable discs prior to burning and encrypt files for added security. It can't schedule automatic backups, however, since you'll need to be on hand to insert the discs. Roxio can also handle burning tasks, but it doesn't support the new HD disc formats. Going Remote Thanks to broadband, backing up your data to an online storage site is now a viable option. Besides convenience, online storage often enables you to access your data from any PC that connects to the Net. Another bonus: Online storage services offer automated or scheduled backup for "set it and forget it" ease of use. And unlike backing up to another drive or optical disc, your files are stored on a remote server, not in your home. This means you don't have to worry about theft or natural disaster -- your data will still exist in cyberspace. But due to issues with bandwidth and maximum upload speeds determined by your Internet service provider, backing up files online will take longer than copying files to a secondary hard drive. And depending on the type of service and pricing plan you choose, this method could end up costing a lot more than purchasing an external drive or using optical discs. Carbonite is one very useful service that backs up your files behind the scenes. After you download its program onto your Windows PC, Carbonite can back up all the data on your hard drive or specify which folders, subfolders, and files you want to store. As long as your computer is on and connected to the net, Carbonite continuously monitors and backs up your data. Whenever you create a new file or modify an existing one, Carbonite records the changes. The only files it won't back up automatically are Windows system files -- although you can instruct Carbonite to save them, the company advises against it because they could cause problems when restored. Mozy. As with Carbonite, you download an application (for Windows or Mac) and select the files you want Mozy to back up on its servers. Mozy, however, offers a free version that gives you 2GB of storage capacity, which is great if you aren't backing up huge files. If you find that you're quickly hitting the limit, unlimited storage costs US$4.95 a month. Other pluses include support for files larger than 3GB and for Microsoft Outlook files, as well as the ability to access your files from any computer via the Web. Other services to check out include IBackup, IDrive-E Online Backup, Iomega's iStorage Online, and Xdrive. The key is to weigh these offerings and determine which delivers the features you want at a price that fits your budget. If you're not backing up more than a gigabyte or two, the free services are a great resource. Crunch the numbers on the for-pay services, however, and it may cost less to buy an external drive that's on sale. Small & Simple USB flash drives are perhaps the most familiar players on the ad-hoc backup circuit. Although a small-capacity model like a 128MB thumb drive won't make a good backup candidate, newer flash drives that deliver between 2GB and 16GB provide significant storage space. Thumb drives' extreme portability makes them great for backing up files to take with you. The same software we recommend for backing up to DVDs, Handy Backup, also supports flash drives. But you can also use the backup tools built into Windows or Mac OS X -- when connected, your flash drive appears as a backup option. Due to their small size, however, thumb drives are easy to lose. If you're going to back up sensitive materials to one, make sure it offers data encryption. We also recommend a USB thumb drive that supports the U3 platform, which enables you to store applications on the drive and use them from any PC. What makes the U3 system unique is that all applications launched from the thumb drive stay on the drive, and no info is ever stored on the host computer. References www.hp.com <http://www.hp.com/> http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1799 <http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1799> http://review.zdnet.com/4520-6033_16-4207539.html <http://review.zdnet.com/4520-6033_16-4207539.html> http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=260644&m\ essageID=2569132 <http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=260644&\ messageID=2569132> http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/what.mspx <http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/what.mspx> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/learnmore/backup.mspx <http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/learnmore/backup.mspx\ > www.free-backup.info/backup-your-data-today.html <http://www.free-backup.info/backup-your-data-today.html> www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/backup1.html <http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/backup1.html> www.learnthenet.com/english/html/69backup.htm <http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/69backup.htm> www.argentuma.com/backup/articles/index.html <http://www.argentuma.com/backup/articles/index.html> www.lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/geek-to-live-automatically-back\ -up-your-hard-drive-147855.php <http://www.lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/geek-to-live-automatica\ lly-back-up-your-hard-drive-147855.php> www.pcworld.com/article/id,114020/article.html <http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,114020/article.html> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ----------------------------- Visit www.tsolver.net Yahoo! 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