Do you backup your computer? Try Mozy!

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine had a hard drive go out on his laptop. That’s a hassle in itself, but the unfortunate thing is that the hard drive contained a collection of family photos that did not exist anywhere else. Unless he can work some magic and somehow restore the pictures from the dead drive, those photos are gone forever!

The reliability of computer hardware along with the popularity and convenience of digital cameras has nurtured a flippant attitude towards backups. I’m willing to bet that the average home user has only one copy of most of their photos and files. When their hard drive fails (yes, it is a matter of when, not if ), all of those precious photos will be lost. The only alternative will be to pay thousands of dollars to have the files extracted. I think my friend was quoted $1800 to get his photos back.

Luckily, there are some things we can do to make sure our photos and files are safe. It’s just a matter of sitting down for an hour and getting it set up.

Get Set Up for Backups

One of the simplest things you can do is spend $100 on an external hard drive to be used as storage for backups. The external hard drive just plugs into your computer and adds itself as “removable storage.” From there, all you have to do is place copies of your important stuff on the external drive periodically (once a week is usually good enough). As easy as that is, however, people (myself included) usually forget to do it or put it off until “tomorrow.” To enable automatic backups, you can use freeware like Syncback to automate the process. Just set a schedule and let it run.

This will get you by in most cases, but there is one more step that we should take to protect ourselves from the big disasters, like tornadoes, lightning strikes, floods, and fires. For these situations, a remote backup should be used.

Remote Backups

A remote backup is a copy of your files that is kept in a remote location (a place other than your home). The remote location is accessed via the Internet, so you need to have a decent Internet connection in most cases (if you only want to backup a few files or if they aren’t very large, this isn’t much of an issue). With a remote backup scheme in place, your house can be leveled by a tornado and you will still be able to restore your files and family photos.

There are lots of different companies who offer this service, but I’ve found that a service called Mozy is among the most respected. Mozy Remote Backup is free up to 2GB (gigabytes), which is quite a bit of storage. Included with this service is a utility to install on your computer that automates the backup process. So once you have it set up, you don’t have to worry about losing anything that is important to you.

If you need to backup more than 2GB, which is easy to do with digital photos, you should probably use Mozy’s paid service. The Mozy Home Unlimited package offers an unlimited amount of storage for the ridiculous price of $4.95/mo. For less than one fast food combo per month, you can rest assured that all of your important files and photos are backed up.

If you happen to be a Mac user, bless your heart, a Mozy for Macs version is also available.

Which Backup Method Should I Use?

I presented a couple of options here, so you may be wondering which backup method you should use. I recommend doing both! You can depend on your local backup (the backup that’s on your external hard drive) when you accidentally delete the wrong file or when your hard drive dies. It’s fast and simple. The remote backup is like insurance. You’re protecting yourself against sudden disasters that no one expects to happen.

Hopefully you guys will find this useful. If you have any questions about backing up your computer, leave a comment and I’ll try to get back with you.