You should always back up your computer or important files.  Whether you use a laptop, desktop, or store your important files on an external hard drive, you should back up your files to another media.  Typically, the easiest way to back up your files is just to plug in an external hard drive to your computer, and copy & paste your important files over. 

Why?  Your hard drive in your computer will fail eventually.  Yes, this is a very negative thought, but it’s a candid thought to the truth of electronics.  Since a hard drive is made up of moving electronic components, the drive is bound to fail.  When it fails, you can either pay for data recovery or you can resort to your file backup. 

Performing a backup may be performed by automated software scheduling or manually.  If the act of backing up by software scares you, don’t worry - you can do it yourself every month or quarter.  For a PC, you’ll need to back up your My Documents, Desktop, Favorites, and email, Palm, and any financial data.  On a Mac, just copy over your whole User Profile and Programs.  For further longevity of your backup external hard drive, you can turn it off when not in use.

Backing up your files can prevent loss of files and, most importantly, loss of productivity.

We are in the age now that we need all of our pictures, music, and files at our fingertips at all times.  Now, it is common to have a Mac, PC, and blackberry or iPhone.  Between home and work, it is common to either VPN into work or use some product, such as GoToMyPC or LogMeIn to remotely access your office or home computer while away.  The whole point is to stay in command of your files wherever you are.

Now, you don’t have to worry about remoting in here or there.  You can use SugarSync which will do it all for you.  Here’s what you get from SugarSync:

• Automatic synchronization of files from PCs, Macs, and mobile devices.  There is no  limit of how many computers you can sync.  This means you can say what to sync, and voila…all your computers will have access to these updated files.
• Automatic backups

Pricing starts at $2.49/month for 10GB and all the way up to $25/month for 250GB of storage.  We have implemented this solution for a few clients and found good results.  Just make sure not to have duplicate name folders that you’re syncing (i.e. My Documents) or one computer can save over another duplicate named folder.

You may check out the CNBC video showcasing this product.  Overall, this is a neat way to sync and back up your files for the 1 person user without having to worry about a server backup system.

External hard drive backups are becoming very popular.  The USB or firewire devices offer easy ways to back up your important files, music, and pictures.  However, are these external hard drives a reliable solution?  Yes, but they will fail over time. 

External hard drives are essentially regular desktop hard drives, or laptop hard drives for the smaller ones, with a plastic enclosure around them.  So, as true with any hard drive, it has moving, powered parts that will fail eventually.  Hard drives have an average life of 3-4 years with some drives failing in the first year and others lasting beyond 7 years.  That means that you should not hold all your eggs in one basket.  In other words, don’t rely just solely on your external hard drive to store your important family pics or business documents. 

Since these external hard drives will ultimately fail one day, it is wise to have your files on your computer and to just make a copy of them on your external hard drive.  That way, if your computer drive or your external hard drive fails, you’ll have a backup on the other one.  If your computer cannot store all of your files, then you should consider having a second backup external hard drive where you can store you primary external hard drive’s files.  You can copy the files over quarterly or every 6 months and then just turn off the external hard drive when it’s not in use.  This will give your backups reliability and longevity.  And you will have peace of mind.  Also, you will save in the end by avoiding data recovery costs and ensuring your important files are saved.

Online backup solutions are becoming very popular due to the growing sizes of pictures and music.  It is difficult to remember to back up files and to do it on a periodic basis.  Online backups make it easy to protect your documents, pictures, and music by backing up your files over the Internet. 

• Who backs up your files?  Websites offer this service where from all over the country and world. 
• Where do your files go?  The websites are owned by people who store your files on their servers and computers.  These machines usually have backups themselves or some form of redundancy to further ensure your data is safe. 
• How do you retrieve your files?  These online sites have an easy interface to select which files you’d like to recover or copy back to your computer. 

Here are the top 4 online back-up sites:

1. IDrive: Offers 2GB of space for free; unlimited space for $49.95/year for personal use; or starts at $99.50/year for 50GB for business use.   One of the most affordable and secure, encrypted solutions.
2. Carbonite: A new service that offers unlimited data backups for any user for $49.95/year or $89.95/ 2 years.  Great price for all users, but back-up and restore time is on the slow side.
3. IBackup:  Starting at $9.95/month for 10GB, this online service offers the best scheduling, restore, and success confirmation features.  You will get the best peace of mind with this stable and secure service.
4. Mozy: Provides $4.95/month for unlimited data on 1 home computer or $3.95/month per license as well as 50 cents per 1GB for 1 business computer.  Probably the easiest interface to work with, but is limited to 1 computer per license so you might have to ask Mozy for permission to restore files to another computer.

All of these online backups are offered for Windows and Mac computers.  It is recommended to try a demo of all of above software first to ensure which interface and features are right for you.

Backing up files to an external hard drive is an easy process.  You just plug in the external hard drive via a USB or firewire port and copy and paste your files over.  You can even go a step above and use automated software to copy your files for you on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis.

The question here is “Are external hard drive backups a reliable solution?”  It is only as reliable as the life of the external hard drive.  Well, all external hard drives have a hard drive inside of the plastic casing.  This hard drive, like all desktop and laptop hard drives, have a shelf life to it.  When the hard drive fails, and it will eventually albeit 1 year or up to 7 years, your backup also fails with it.  What is the solution here then? 

It is recommended to have your files also backed up somewhere else whether on your desktop, laptop, or another external hard drive.  The ideal backup solution is to have an automated backup on one external hard drive where you always keep the external hard drive running or just running when you know it is time for an automated backup.  Then, have another external hard drive that you turn on monthly or quarterly to take a full backup of the primary external hard drive.  This may sound redundant; however, this redundancy can save you time and money instead of being reactionary with data recovery efforts.

It is easy to back up your files on your own computer.  You may back up to CDs, DVDs, or an external hard drive.  You may even go an extra step and back up your files online through an online storage company.

But, what do you do for an easy back-up solution for 2 or more people.  Whether you want to back up files for your family from multiple computers or a small computer office, there is a better solution than unplugging and plugging in one external hard drive for mutliple computers.  Also, you may share one external hard drive from one computer for all the rest of the computers, but this solution is not ideal since it slows down the hosting computer and only works when the hosting computer is on.

You should consider getting a NAS device, or Network Attached Storage device.  These devices look like an oversized external hard drive, but plug directly into your router via a network, or ethernet, cable wire.  This will allow your computers to connect to the storage device by wired or wireless connection.  These devices can range from 250GB to 2TB (2 x 1,000GB) of storage.  One computer doesn’t need to be on for it to operate and all computers may simulataneously open and back up files with ease.  Some devices may even be set up so you can access the NAS device from outside of the house by username and password security.  Further, the NAS devices usually come with the ability to set up hands-free, automated backups on a periodic basis.

The NAS device is definitely the way to go for backing up your music, pictures, and other important files.  Please note that NAS devices include hard drives that do have a lifespan to them as all computer components.  This means that eventually your NAS device will fail (app. 4 - 6 years) and that you should have your precious files duplicated elsewhere so you’re prepared if and when disaster strikes.

A new trend has been to back up files online. The cost is usually determined per  gigabyte. For example, 5GB of storage space costs up to $30 / month. The more gigs you have, the cheaper the overall price is. However, the price is is still expensive due to how your files are backed up. Online backups are basically someone with a computer like you who backs up your files onto a hard drive. The only difference is that they are hosting your files from a web host.
The good news is that you can back up your files online on your own! This can save you time and money.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Sign up for a domain if you don’t already have one. A domain is your own website address.

2. Host your own website.

Steps 1 and 2 may be done by subscribing to a web host, such as GoDaddy

3. Within your host, set up a username and password for your FTP account. An FTP account allows you to save your computer’s files to your server.

4. Transfer files from your computer to your ftp account. You may do this by going to a web browser and type in: ftp://www.yourdomain.com & enter your username and password. Then copy and paste files into the white box which is your web space.

Although setting up a web host with a domain is typically for creating your own website, you may use this method as a smart way to save important files online. Backing up this way can be as cheap at $5 / month for 100GB!. Usual online backups costs at a minimum of $400 / month for such storage.

Here’s to smart computing!

Your computer crashed and a technician deems your hard drive dead. What are your next steps? Really, just two. The expensive and painstaking data recovery approach or the cheaper, reliable backup restore.

Data recovery could cost in the thousands and still doesn’t guarantee that all of your favorite pictures and critical e-mails are rescued. Also, you could be waiting from 1 to 4 painstaking days before your data is retrieved.

As for the reliable backup restore, this is a method whereby you copy your computer files to another source, such as an external hard drive. This is highly recommended so that if your computer crashes, you already have a back up of your files. Hence, no downtime and worrying!

Let’s now talk about the types of backup.

There are USB and firewire external hard drives ranging from 120GB – 500GB with a price tag from $80 - $600. These drives are a great way to back large types of files, such as pictures and music. Just remember that external hard drives, like all drives, are meant to fail over a period of time. Even such, it is rare that your computer hard drive and external hard drive will fail at the same time. So, this is a good form of redundancy.

Flash drives or thumb drives are a nice portable way to back up your files also. These small gadgets can be put in your pocket and used as a key chain due to its small size. The capacity ranges from 256MB – 4GB and prices are from $30 - $150. So, it might not hold your whole collection of files, but at least you can feel more comfortable sleeping at night by backing up your decades’ worth of accounting files.

Another reliable backup is CDs or DVDs. These guys will not fail and can only become useless if you scratch them to death or use them as coffee coasters. Most computers at least have a CD burner where you can store 700MB, just less than 1GB, of files on CDs. If you have more than 1GB of files to copy which is common, an external DVD burner is a wise, inexpensive and possibly cool investment. You may store up to 4.7GB of files, or the equivalent of 2,000 pictures, 1,500 songs, e-mails, and word documents. Costs range from $75 - $250. The cool factor arises if you get a Lightscribe DVD burner where you can label the DVDs with a laser technology…basically, no messy, sticky labels. Also, some burners have double-layer capacity so you can store almost 10GB of data on 1 DVD.

Another sure backup is by tape. Tape backups are usually found in server environments due to their high price tags, ranging from $750 - $10,000+. Similar to CDs and DVDs, they will not fail like hard drives. Further, tapes have a magnetic inner lining that is coated with hard plastic, thereby making it the most durable and reliable backup. Tapes may hold anywhere from 20GB to 800GB of data each.

Online backups have been popular lately. However, they are not recommended due totheir high costs. Storing files online usually comes with a monthly cost or cost per GB of storage. In return, a company hosts your files on their server computer. It is almost like having a personal butler take care of your files on the Internet. Get an external backup on your own. You’ll have full ownership and more cash in your pocket at the end of the day.

A dying breed are the floppies and ZIP drives due to their lower storage amounts. Don’t even think about using them unless you are doing a research project.