22 September,2009 07:28 AM IST | | Balaji Narasimhan
Most of us are too busy to safeguard data, so why not do it the automated way?
How often should you backup your data? Somebody once said that you should backup and backup until you are blue in the face from backing up and then, you should backup some more just to be on the safe side.
Once upon a time, backups were performed on tape by the friendly system administrator, but today anybody can backup data by storing it on thumb drives or by burning it on a CD or a DVD.
Unfortunately, we don't always find the time to do this. For one reason or the other, we forget, and one day, when we lose our hard disks, we lose critical information and then there is no point in crying over spilt milk, is there?
So, start today! Check out some of these online sites that we have mentioned here and save yourself a lot of headaches when your hard disk finally gives way.
>> mozy.com: With this service, you have to signup, download some software, select the files that you want backed up, and then forget about it. The service uses encryption to secure your data when it is in transit and changed files are only backed up on a block-level incremental basisu2014that is, only the changes and not the entire file is transferred online again. Currently, you get unlimited backup for $4.95 every month.
>> idrive.com: If you are really worried about the security of your data, this service may be good for you because it automatically recognises modified parts of files or folders and backs them up every 10 minutes. An interesting feature is timeline backupu2014if you made changes on Friday, and then made further changes on Saturday, you can rollback to what the files looked like on Friday if you want. You can store up to 2GB for free, and you get 150 GB for $4.95 per month ($49.50 per annum).
>> backblase.com: This service claims to backup everything, except the OS, apps, and files over 4GB. It even backs up data on USB drives. The service says that though you can schedule backups for specific times, by default it is always backing up when you are connected to the Web. The data is stored in a data centre with 24x7 onsite staff, biometric security and the room even comes with seismic pedestals, which means that your data may be safe even if an earthquake hits the data centre. The service costs $5 per month per computer ($50 per annum).
>> carbonite.com: This could be the service for you if you want to backup a huge collection of files and don't want to worry about size limits. With this service, you pay $54.95 per annum per computer irrespective of how much data you are storing online. While most of the sites featured here do a decent job of explaining how they work, this one is perhaps the best here because it shows it with various slides, which is great for non-technical people who want to understand how their data is secured.
QUICK TAKE
>>Backup is critical for all of us
>>Unfortunately, not many of us do this regularly
>>This is where online backups come handy
Do it yourself
Some of us have huge amounts of data to backup, but many of us need just a few things backed up. For such people, an online service may not be necessary. All you will need are a few CDs or DVDs, along with the trusty pen drive. The best option is to backup data daily to the pen drive and then burn it at regular intervals onto CDs and DVDs. This is manual and cumbersome, but one advantage is that you are sure of data security because you are in control. This will only work if you are disciplined and do the backups regularly otherwise, you might as well forget about it and stick to automated online backups.
