Thread: Protect Your Data With an Easy Online Backup

While it's great to archive your entire hard drive, don't over-look the benefits of backing up just your critical data: documents, bookmarks, financial records, e-mail messages, address books, and so on. Why bother? Sometimes you want to restore just a handful of files or save a select chunk of your data. Plus, data-only backups take a lot less time than full system backups do. For this task, look to an online backup service such as !Drive or MozyHome.



Both offer 2GB of free storage and the option to upgrade to unlimited storage for a month. Mozy relies on client software to help you select, for backup, either common file types or important user-data files for programs like Outlook and Quicken, while !Drive uses an Explorer-style interface for selecting specific files and folders to preserve. The real advantage to both services is that they work automatically and in the background, uploading new and changed files from your PC while you work (or at scheduled times, such as in the middle of the night). That kind of set-it-and-forget-it backup reliability is well worth spending a few bucks on every month.

If you'd rather save your pennies and you don't mind taking a more hands-on approach, loads of services allow you to park files online free of charge. For example, ADrive offers 50GB of free storage. However, no synchronization is involved: It's up tq you to determine which files to upload, and when. You should use these services for files that don't change all that often, such as MP3 and photo libraries.