Last week, my computer died. It didn’t crash, it wasn’t infected by a virus, it wasn’t dropped or doused in water, it just reached the end of its life. I totally freaked out until I learned that’s all it was. The good folks at Geek Squad removed the hard drive, which was undamaged and in perfect condition, and downloaded everything to our external hard drive.
Next time, I know I won’t be so lucky.
Consider these unnerving stats, courtesy of online backup service firm Verio:
- More than one-third of all PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
- Half of internet users have lost computer files at some point, and 2/3 of them never recover their data.
- Even worse, 60% of companies that lose their data shut down within six months.
I’ve decided to look into ways to back-up data, including email. I just shudder at the thought of losing client files and contact information for the hundreds of people in Outlook. Here are the options I found:
- External hard drive. This is what we have now, and what my husband told me he uses (I’ve never seen him use the thing, so I’ll just take him at his word). External hard drives are easy to use (they plug right into your computer with a USB cable) and are not terribly expensive: 1-2TB hard drives average between $90 to $150.
- Automated online backup. If you like to go the lazy route (like me), you might want to look into Mozy, Carbonite or Idrive. They allow you to set up automated online backup of files at regular intervals. Mozy even has a free version that provides 2GB of online storage; most services offer 1GB of free space with the option to pay for more storage.
- Non-automated online storage. Lots of big names offer password protected online file storage: Microsoft Skydrive (25GB for free), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) (pay very reasonable monthly fees for the space you use), and the upcoming Google My Stuff.
- Email back up. There are several free programs out there that allow you to easily back-up email: Back-Up Email, KLS Mail Back-Up, Amic Email Back-Up, and Outlook Express Back-Up, among others.
One thing to keep in mind: make sure the company you choose to work with has a solid reputation and is unlikely to go out of business. You wouldn’t necessarily lose your data, but you might not have much time to migrate it to another service, which could prove to be time-consuming, expensive, and stressful.
Photo courtesy of Flickr/Nick J Adams
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