A quick research will lead you to find a host of online pc backup services that will all promise to provide you with the best backup for your files.

While the idea of backing up online is good, very reliable, affordable, convenient, and the credibility of this service is ever growing, you should never compromise your data to only using this resource because there are some disadvantages that we´ll consider bellow.

• Data privacy: can anyone really guarantee your data will be kept private to their own employees? This is the reason why some people that do online pc backup prefer not to save confidential information.
• Internet backup service providers could go out of business or other companies could absorb them. In this case you data might be at risk due to these or similar changes.
• Data loss: It has happened already that hardware or software failures within data centers cause information to loss. This shouldn’t be happening, but since we are not in a perfect world, we must say that this can happen again. When this occurs, some providers may change their equipments, however if the customer didn’t have their own backup, they may have completely lost their data.
• Network limitations:  considering your available network bandwidth you may encounter slow data restoration. Since your backup is stored offsite, and not on an external hard drive directly attached to your computer, nor within a corporate office, you must restore backups using the internet, or, in some cases, providers could ship your backup on a DVD to your address. With some providers, data is backed up constantly while you are online, which could lead your system to be sluggish, so you´ll have to configure the backups to run when you are not using internet or have low activity.
• Lost or forgotten encryption password: if you saved your password on your computer, and for any reason it goes dead you could have a serious problem to access data that was backed up online. Online pc backup services should still have a way to retrieve your information, but this can be a stressful experience.

With this said, you should use online pc backup as a higher layer of security for your data, but it is wise to continue backing up locally or at least find an alternative other than “putting all eggs in one basket”, referring to internet pc backup services.

The main reason why internet backup services took such strength in the pass was to provide an option for real data security, as you shouldn’t have your data and your backup in the same facilities; however, this is exactly what the majority of people do.  If disaster hits, it not only takes your computer away, but the backup that you had in the same place too.

In spite of these disadvantages, or points to consider, backing up pc online could definitely be better than locally backing up your system.

Every year about 43 % of people that use computer lose their emails, documents, pictures and other important and irreplaceable files. A good number of these people never planned on backing up.

Other individuals simply forget to run their backups, even when operating systems like Windows 7 have a way to automate this process.  Sometimes, the hard drive that is assigned to receive the backup is full or it might be left unplugged from the computer.

A lot of people like to use backup online because they can recover data from wherever they are in the world. This eliminates the headache of having to carry an external hard drive around the place, and since you can just login to a system and recover exactly the file you want, it makes this service very attractive.

Carbonite offers unlimited backup storage valid for a single computer at a good price, but choosing from one, two or three year plans will lower the cost even more.

The system´s performance does not slow down when backups are quietly running in the background.

This service offers a free 15 days trial where you won´t have to input your credit card to begin the trial.

One of his excellent features is the ability to perform automatic backups. By using the scheduler application, your system will be backed up at the time and date you want. You may decide to back up on hourly or daily basis if you need. Furthermore, you can also configure it not to run backups so that it would not use your Internet transfer speed when you are online.

Your data is highly secured with this utility as it encrypts the information twice before it leaves your computer. Data will remain encrypted when it gets to the servers and only you, and not even Carbonite´s staff can access it with a password that you create.

Restoring files is easy from any computer with internet access. It has recently introduced mobile device applications for Apple iOS, Android and Blackberry so that you can access specific files and email them to others.

There is abundant information available on their support site: FAQ, video, tutorials and knowledge base articles. Additionally, you will also be given access to phone and chat support.

Carbonite´s interface can be improved much more. They lack of very good features like file sharing, file archiving and sub accounts that other providers have.

While it has a good scheduler, it only backs up the most recent version of each file. Future versions might support file versioning and offer achieve folders so that you can preserve previous versions of files.

Another drawback with Carbonite is that it does not support backing up to external hard drives, USB drives or network drives. They seem to limit the user to backup to their servers only.

IDrive, unlike Carbonite, offers more than an unlimited option for backups. You can sign up for a 5GB free  account which will not need any credit card to be activated, and then upgrade to a family plan with 500GB of space , which  allows you to back up 5PCs using the same account. They have a policy where if you go over your storage limit, you’ll be charged 50 cents per MB per month. There is available an unlimited backup plan for one computer only at an affordable price.

On an overall, the backup tools are very solid, and the interface itself is clean and easy to use, similar to Windows 7 interface. However, first time users may prefer even simpler options.

Similar to Carbonite, IDrive allows users to easily schedule backups by the day, week and month, at whichever time of day they choose, including files on mapped drives such as external devices connected to your computer and network drives.

You can easily run a data restore from a specific time, and not just from the most recent backup, and even set up bandwidth usage which is useful for the computer not to slow down if it starts backing up while you are connected to internet.

With IDrive, you are limited to back up only one time every day, however, with a feature called “Continuous data protection”, which you can enable or disable as you please, you´ll be able to back up specific files (50MB and smaller) every 10 minutes if they are changed.  This works as an incremental backup, and only applies to the computer itself and not mapped drives.

The service does not present any file sharing capability, however, the best feature of IDrive is the ability for file archiving allowing you to restore data from old backups no matter how long ago they were saved. You may access achieved files on any computer with an internet connection or from an IPhone, BlackBerry or Android; and as I mention these devices, there is a mobile application that lets you backup and restores contacts.

It also has an advanced versioning tool that will save up to 30 versions of a file, along with files deleted from your local hard disk drive for 30 days, so if you by accident deleted data, you can recover it.

IDrive will back up files that are open and in use like an Outlook data file. Also, if your connection to internet gets interrupted or your system gets restarted, the backup will not be affected.

If you sign up for IDrive Pro, you will be able to manage multiple individual accounts with a single account, allowing great availability to files and creating a more efficient data storage system. Beside this, you can set up the system to work through a connection via a proxy network.

Regarding support options, IDrive has a fairly good team which can be reached by phone, email or chat. Their site also contains user manuals, demo and FAQs which is broken down into specific help sections that would help you to find topics and answers to your concerns.

The subscription cost could definitely be more affordable since other similar online backup providers are cheaper than theirs.

SugarSync is a backup, file sync, and file sharing tool that students, consumers and businesses can use.

While this service has awesome futures, it is highly secure and very easy to use, you´ll need to sign up for a business account if you want phone support.

The backup service contains a scheduler to run backups automatically and set incremental backups that will only store new files and changes that have been made since your last upload.

It offers archiving capabilities where you can save numerous versions of your files and entire system so you can access previous versions in case of data loss.

One unique feature is that unlike other providers, data on several computers can be backed up to the same account.

With SugarSync when you upload the files they will be constantly synchronized and backed up to your account. Once the files are edited, the changes are backed up to their servers.

It automatically stores the previous five versions of every file available without additional actions from the user. If you upload pictures, they will be ordered into albums which will allow you to easily find and share them.

These and any files can be turned into public links which you can post online or email to friends. They will be able to download them using a direct link to your file without having to register with this provider. These links can be eliminated at any time. Entire folders can also be shared so that selected friends or coworkers can change or have access to certain data.

Changes to files can be synced with any web browser using the WebSync option on your account. File changes are also synchronized to your other devices once you have finished editing them, so you really don’t need to have a network set up, because it lets you sync the data with all devices, including computers, phones and mobile devices that are not connected to the internet or turned off. Once they come online the changes you have made from a different computer, phone or mobile device will be synchronized. This service works on MAC´s, PC´s and mobile devices.

Mobile applications are also available for Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Symbian and Blackberry, so you don’t have to store all media, photos and files on these devices, you can access them from your SugarSync account without you having to download them. Actually, you can stream to your music you have stored without downloading it.

You are offered several types of accounts. You can get started with a free 30 day trial, or choose 30,60,100 or 250GB storage space where you are able to save from 3,000 to 25,000 documents, from 6,000 to 40,000 pictures and from 6,000 to 30,000 songs. Additionally you may opt for 500GB storage space if you need even more space. Businesses can go for 100 GB for 3 users and can add more space and users when needed.

All your information is highly encrypted using 128-bit AES technology which is used by banks and financial institutions, and backed up to several data center facilities, which means that high redundancy is provided in the event of failure in one of these locations.

Data synchronization, file sharing and backup is made simple and flexible with SugarSync and they offer a great amount of tutorials, information and quick start guides for your learning. Additional inquiries can be attended to via phone, chat support, however they could add more customers if they offered better or cheaper phone support.

Mozy is part of EMC, which is the largest provider of data storage platforms in the world, and offers an unlimited backup space for home users to use with one computer, and another one for business users for multiple computers with a limit on data storage space.

You can access data backup with this provider from any computer in the world with an internet connection.

File sharing isn’t a strong feature of this provider, even though you can share files or download them onto any computer.

Their low costs seems to outstand over other providers, but achieved data is only kept on their servers for 30 days, so you are not able to restore your data from any point in time. Incremental backup is available such as with other providers which will let the system save changes to files that were edited since the last backup.

They have recently introduced mobile apps for iPhone or Android, but would need to widen their support to other devices to keep up with the competition.

Users can set automatic backups and choose to upload important files each time the computer is not in use, daily or weekly.  Additionally you can configure it to reduce resources when the computer is connected to internet. That way a user will notice less that backups are running.

They provide 128-bit SSL encryption to your data, which is also password protected. If you need higher encryption, you can subscribe to MozyPro designed for business that use military grade 256-bit-AES encryption. Consumer uses would usually not go for this one.

You can begin with a free 2GB account to backup files an access them anywhere. Most people will go for this option and stick with it, unless they require more storage space.  They have available a program for unlimited backup space.

On an overall, Mozy is easy to navigate, and a great option for backing up files online.

MyPC Backup includes several backup features such as automatic, incremental and selective backups so that the user can be more exact regarding the files they want to save. If while backing up the computer becomes unresponsive and needs to restart, or a power outage occurs the service will automatically restart the backup from the same place the error occurred and will continue backing up files.

MyPc Backup includes a nice scheduler which includes alerts to inform the user if backup completed successfully and if errors occurred. You´ll be able to back up data every hour, day week or month.  All the data is saved on a history log which you can easily and quickly access.

Synchronizing files and folders between different systems is another feature included with this service. This way you can sync data from your business computer to another computer where you need to work from. Be aware that it will not be able to back up files that are opened, so you´ll have to close them before backup starts.

As many other online tools, it will allow you to gain access to data from any place by simply having a computer with internet connection. Furthermore, the service will let you work on files and folders even without having an internet connection. The changes made to these files will synchronize to the computer whenever the connection to internet becomes available again.

It also has applications for you to access your data with mobile devices such as Android, iPhone, Blackberry, however, there is sort of a limitation on these features since users cannot share photo albums neither can they set permission for certain users to see only specific files. The tool itself didn’t include a photo organizer where you can easily manage pictures and images.

Using MyPC Backup is save since they use encryption methods used by that banks.  In fact, when backing up, files are not only saved to their secure servers, but also to a folder on the user´s computer.

They have no file size limit on documents you need to back up, and you can save music, movies, documents or any type of data. There is no restriction on the file type. You are also able to backup information on USB flash drives and external hard drives.

If you are a complete novice to computers or running backups, you might have to click here and there to fully understand the interface; however, it is very easy to use, especially for regular computer users. The backup will run very quick and can finish just within minutes. Obviously, the initial backup will take longer, but from there on, you can configure the system to do incremental backups.

Regarding support, they seem to have email support available, but would do great if they include chat and phone support.  On their webpage you´ll find extensive knowledge base articles, frequent ask questions and video tutorials for your learning.

Learning how to back up data is very easy. Existing operating systems will automate this process for you, which make it even easier.

Beside been hit by disasters, nobody today should fall into data loss if we use the tools that are built in the operating systems to create backups and restore.

Many of us literally have a great amount of our life, not to say our entire life on our computer, so investing at least in one or two reliable external hard drives shouldn’t be something that hurts.

If this is the first time that you have connected an external hard drive to your computer you might automatically be prompted with several options, including one that says to Use this drive for backup. You may, click that option, and it will open the Backup tool.

Generally in Windows 7, you can begin by typing backup in the search box that comes up when you hit the Start button, and you´ll see a list of options, including one that says Backup and Restore.

If you open this utility, you´ll be able to Set a backup if you haven’t done it before. Then, just select the place you want to save your backup, in this case, your external hard drive.

Next, choose what you want to backup, or let windows do it for you. You may also tell windows how often to backup your files, and after these few clicks, your backup will begin. That is why I mentioned that learning how to back up data is very easy with Windows.

The reason I had mentioned about one or two external drives is because a real backup is not only saving your files on a secondary or external hard drive, but finding an additional method to avoid disasters. If you backup is kept inside the same room where your computer is and a disaster strikes the entire building or area it will also carry away your backup forever.

The second hard drive with your backup is to be kept at a remote location, far from your primary backup disk and your computer. This will at least diminish potential data loss in a great way.

Understanding how to back up data today implies realizing that saving those valuable pictures, photos, emails, music and more on a remote server is the perfect complement to traditional backups using a secondary hard drive. One should not be done without the other, but you shouldn’t rely solely on one method either.

The option of backing up files to a remote server completely removes the headache of how to back up data, because the majority of computer users are non technical people, and care little about learning things belonging to hardware and software.

That is why online data backup has grown dramatically in the last years, because it offers a complete hand free option to users regarding the security of their data. They have implemented very easy to use software that require minimal configuration for data to get backed up daily, weekly or whatever time frame you select.

They also remove the pain of having to invest in special computer equipments such as servers, racks, tape drive devices and software to be able to run and keep backups, therefore, small business owners and even home users no longer have to worry how to back up data.

In exchange, they offer security and redundancy for your data at an affordable cost, and you are able to retrieve it from literally any computer at any place.

There are lots of people and even companies that use Gmail services for emails, calendars, documents and more that are inquiring if there is any Google online backup service.

The reason is simple: all of their files are stored on Google servers and they keep no control over it.

One of the ways to backup a webmail service such as Gmail is using a Web Base Backup Program like Backupify. Really, there are several of them available online, and they’ll create social media and web application backups.

The other method is using an email client as we´ll explain further.

The great benefit is that you can have a local copy of your emails if something happens to Google´s servers. If you are a business it would help you not to lose productivity and revenue. Some people have even accidentally deleted emails, but if Google online backup services like Backupify are been used, you should be able to restore your data.

The Web Base tool you select will walk you through the configuration process, which implies authorizing it to get data from your Gmail account. Once that is done the system will backup your emails on a regular basis, and you can download this data and copy it on any sort of media such as an external or secondary hard drive or DVD’s.

Another method is to use an email client. Now all the major operating systems ship with a built in e-mail client and they can connect to your Gmail account and download your messages so that you´ll have a local copy of your mailbox.  You´ll be able to do this by using a tool called Mozila Thunderbird, which you can download online by entering “Download Mozila Thunderbird” on Google.

Go to the Gmail web interface, and on the top right corner, beside where it displays your email address, you´ll find an options icon. Click it and select mail settings. Now on the top of the Gmail window you´ll see several options or tabs. One says: Forwarding and POP/IMAP, which you should click.

Now you need to enable either POP or IMAP. For the majority of people, POP will work just fine and it’s the simpler of the two. Select the “Enable POP for all mail” option.

On the next line, the option is: When messages are accessed with POP. Just set or leave Keep Gmail´s copy in the inbox since we’re just using POP for backup purposes.

Now startup Thunderbird, enter your username (the bit before @gmail.com in your e-mail address) and Google password. Thunderbird will begin downloading your e-mail, creating a local backup. There’s no need to mess with Thunderbird’s settings since you’re doing this for backup purposes.

You´ll need to open Thunderbird periodically so that your email gets backed up.

While this method will work and is definitely the easiest for most people, there are some disadvantages. The most obvious is that the backup doesn’t include your sent mail.

Finding a nice Google online backup service is necessary to provide yourself a certain level of protection for your emails.

As well as paid services, there are a lot of free online backup offers.

 Some may give you all or almost all features that the paid service has for a trial period, while others will really give you a bunch of good features, but upgrading to a monthly or yearly subscription will definitely be a much better option.

We will begin examining some cons, or things to be aware of.

Unlimited means that something has no limits. When we talk about free unlimited online backup, you should investigate well before deciding if to go for it or not.

We have seen services that offer free unlimited storage, meaning that you can store unlimited amount of data on their servers; however, there is a limitation to the file size which could be between 200 or 300 MB. You´d like to be aware of this.

Also, service providers might offer you to backup for free on unlimited number of computers, but the storage space that is assigned to you is not too big, maybe something between 2 -5 GB of data. Therefore, you should consider what they imply as unlimited.

Free unlimited online backup services will never offer you all features of paid services.

For example, you may be able to backup once a day for free, while if you pay, the frequency of backups could be every minute, or every X amount of hours.

Advertisements could also appear on your account window, and others that also have access to a file or share folder that you have created may see them.

Phone, chat and email support would be another limitation to backing up online for free. Professional or business class customers could have priority over those that are given the offer to freely backup over internet.

For businesses, backing up online is a great option because it conveniently allows sharing files and folders. Some managers may opt to have employees save files to a share folder using a website or URL. Free unlimited online backup services may lack of this feature.

Free unlimited online backup users may also encounter poor or no logs of all the activity that is generated. This is valuable if several people have access to the files and can serve to determine who deleted or accessed files and made changes to the account.

So what pros a free and unlimited service will offer you?

If you need access to files but you don’t have your own laptop or you can´t take it everywhere, or you are always forgetting your USB flash drive, then you can use these free services. This way, you don´t have to continue sending emails to yourself. What if you had 400 pictures: would you upload them one by one and then email them to yourself?

The ability of scheduling a backup may also be available depending on the free service your sign up to.

Being able to easily share large files, photos, music and documents with friends and families will be another great benefit for this service.

The best providers also offer very high level of security and data encryption for your files, although you are using a free unlimited online backup solution. This is a great way to backup important documents that may not be highly confidential, but very necessary. It works great if you are running low on budget, while you can have peace of mind that files are not only residing locally on your computer.

When you are looking for the best backup program you’ll first try to find the one that is more simple, friendly user, but highly reliable.

Since the majority of people don´t like to read, a program with a lot of overwhelming options will just bring frustration to the user.

The best backup program is one that has simple tools and windows that beginners can use without any problems, while it will also combine advanced features for experts.

I am talking about something as simple as a button that when clicked, will allow the program to back up everything on your hard drive: files, photos, emails, documents, and even backup all your Windows Operating System settings and preferences.

What I’m trying to emphasize is something that we’ll call: “ease of use”. Most people don’t have the time to spend playing around with software, and although there is always a help section, they’ll prefer to have something simple and highly reliable.

The best backup programs would usually have options for you to arrange or manage the space on the media that is used to save the backups. These options are full, incremental and differential backup, and depending on the software, these options might be in the advanced section.

A full backup copies the entire content of the hard disk, including all the directories, subdirectories and files. Since all of the information is copied you´ll need to carefully schedule when you want to run it, because it also consumes system resources and could slow down the performance of the computer.

An incremental backup will only back up files that the system detects as new or that have been changed since the most recent backup was run. This method requires the least amount of time to run.

On differential backups, the software will examine all the files individually and determine if it has been changed or altered since the performance of the most recent full backup. If changes are detected, then the file will be backed up, but not otherwise.

Other features found on the best backup programs are: disk verification, and compression. Verifying the backup will ensure that all the selected files where included, which will eliminate the chance of error messages when you try to restore them. Backup compression decreases the amount of hard drive space that your backups occupy so you won’t have to delete backups to free up disk space.

Creating a bootable disaster recovery disk that will completely restore a computer without having to install any of the original software and operating system is another feature you´ll want to look out for.

USB or Fireware hard drives, USB flash drives, CD’s and DVD’s are usually the devices or media types that the majority of programs will include. However, you my check out if the program you are looking about include additional devices such as Blue-Ray drives, and Tape Drives. This is especially essential for small business or people that have a large amount of data to save.

Best backup programs also offer a fairly simple way to restore data. Complexity shouldn’t be involved in this step.  All you should be doing is selecting which files or folders you need to recover, and the location to store them.

Since you don’t want to be found manually running backups, your backup program should automate this for you. Make sure it also includes scheduling backups, but on the same hand, just ensure to always keep the media where you´ll store the backup connected or available to the computer.

One of the most useful resources you´ll want to look out for is detailed videos or tutorials that explain how to use the software. Today videos are much easier to follow than text. Either way, you´ll want to find a service that offers you easy to follow guidelines so that you not only learn the essentials, but you can also go further by learning advanced options on a simple way.

Additionally, the support they may offer you via phone, chat or email is something you won´t want to leave out. If you had a question to ask, you won’t want to wait 3-4 business days to receive an answer via email, so you must confirm how efficient their customer support team works with inquires.

Since there are so many companies that offer ways to backup files online, you need to consider the following points before selecting one:

1. Storage space: some services provide you with unlimited space to backup files online. Others offer several limited storage packages where you may pay a fee if you go beyond the limits.

Also, if you are planning for your business to grow, you need to confirm if the unlimited space is for one or several computers.

2. Level of complexity: You´ll always want to find a service that is easy to use, and fully compatible with your computer and operating system.

If they provide software for you to download and install on your computer it must be easy to use and configure.

You want to avoid a complex software with options you don´t understand. Everything should be clearly explained with that service, and should require you very minimum monitoring.  You´ll like to find a service where you can configure the files you want to backup, the schedule you want to backup these files, and that it will smoothly run in the background without interrupting you.

Restoring the files should be very easy as well. Find a service where you are able to restore your files from wherever you are in the world, on a computer or mobile device.

Some providers may offer a web interface where you can create and restore backups from internet and not have to install any client software locally.

3. Backup Features:this include things like:

1. Automatic backups, where you “set and forget” the schedule to backup files online.
2. Incremental backups, where the system only saves those files that have changed since the most recent backup that was performed,
3. Archive ability, where the system not only keeps the latest copy of your backup, but also keeps several copies with historical records, in such a way that if you accidentally delete data on your system you can recover an earlier version of it.
4. File managers, which is an interface where you can easily view, edit and manage the backups.
5. Mobility: Do they have ways to install apps on mobile devices from where you can backup and restore?

4. Security: in first instance, you want to make sure they use very high level of data encryption methods, from the time the data is moved from your computer to the time it is saved and reside on their servers.

Also, you want to verify what type of redundancy their servers and data center have, how many data centers they have and if they are physically near one to another. Confirm if your data is saved to servers at different locations.  Inquire what happens if the place loses electricity for hours or days due to natural disasters. You want to make sure that your data is kept intact if a disaster hits.

Additionally, can they confirm how your data is managed by their employees, or who have access to the server rooms? Do they have any protection against theft?

5. Support options: to backup files online you need a provider that can be reached at any time. Make sure you know if they have phone, email or chat support 24 X 7 X 365. Inquire if you need to pay for an additional layer of support, of if they have ways to escalate to higher technical support levels if you have urgent needs of accessing your files. Verify if they can ship you a DVD with all the information you have backed up in case you can´t restore your data.

6. About the company: Make sure you are selecting a stable company. Look them up at the BBB website or make sure they have this logo on their page. Try to find if there are negative feedbacks others have posted on Internet.
 
Many of them will offer trial periods so that you can backup files online and test their service. Check if they will offer you a refund in case you are not satisfied with their service during a period of time.

Each Operating System has a built in utility to help the user back up their files. These backups are mostly stored on secondary or external hard drives, CD´s or DVD´s, or in some cases, other storage devices such as tape drives are use in this process.

During the last years, people have realized that these backup methods can also fail and many are asking how to backup computer online.  There are many companies offering this service today. Simply, you pay them to save your data on their servers, and you can access it from any place in the world that have internet connection.

Most of these companies would have you install a program on your computer, which you´ll be able to configure in such a way that it will back up only the files that you want, when you want.

You are also able to restore your information from any computer wherever you are. Let´s say that you forgot your USB flash drive home and 30 minutes before your business presentation you noticed it. Thanks to these services, you can restore from the backup you previously created and avoid embarrassments in front of your possible new customers.

But, why should you backup computer online, instead of locally?

We all know how electronic devices work. A USB flash drive or external hard drive can drop and get damaged; they can be lost or stolen. CD´s or DVD´s can get scratched or simply stop working. In fact, any of these devices that store your backup can be affected by a natural disaster, including your computer. So imagine having both, the computer and backup go away forever at the same time. All your memories, photos, songs, presentations lost in one event.

Online backup companies usually have more than one facility, so data is not residing at the same data center. Their servers are set up in raid systems, which mean that data is kept in redundant environments. If one disk fails, the information is not loss because the other hard drives on the array also have the information.

These data centers are equipped with fully redundant power distribution units, uninterruptable power supply units, battery backups, and they have power generators that kick in when a power failure occurs. Additionally, their secure centers are kept from unauthorized access.

Wondering what happens if disaster hits the data center? These providers also have redundant locations far one from another, so your data resides on servers at different buildings and locations.

These services are available for both PC and MAC users.  Options are available for home users and businesses. Backing up computer online instead of locally is certainly very convenient for small businesses with low budget. Since customer and financial data are essential for any business, and can rarely be recovered from human memories it must be backed up and protected frequently. However, this will lead to hire IT personal and purchase computer equipment.

The software to backup computer online provided by these companies is easy to install, and when everything is set up, backup runs in the background. Besides this, their support team usually reaches out via chat or phone support if the user encounters any technical difficulties while using the service.

Using the backup tool that comes with Windows won´t necessarily encrypts your files, but data that is backed up online is highly encrypted with technologies used in institutions like banks.

Most of these offers include unlimited storage space, and really the cost of the service is not expensive. Think about paying something between 0.13 to 0.20 cents daily for this service. That is why small businesses can afford this option, as it comes up much cheaper than an IT´s monthly salary. Having a high speed internet connection is really the only thing needed to backup computer online.

]]> http://www.howtobackupcomputerfiles.com/backup-computer-online/feed/ 0 http://www.howtobackupcomputerfiles.com/backing-up-computer-files/ http://www.howtobackupcomputerfiles.com/backing-up-computer-files/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:44:19 +0000 Backup Computer Files http://www.howtobackupcomputerfiles.com/?p=29 About backing up computer files

If you are working at a corporation, backing up computer files might be done locally or remotely by your IT staff.

It is still good to understand the key benefits of backing up computer files, mainly if you are the only one responsible of the data on your computer.

Windows 7 makes it easy for anybody with basic computer knowledge to learn how to back up computer files, but beside this free and very reliable built in option, there are other ways to do this.

 If you have ever gone through a computer crash and lose very important files, such as pictures, emails, music, and videos you certainly know why is highly essential to program daily, weekly or monthly backups.

Many people are stingy                with their own self, and find it hard to spend some dollars to get an external hard drive, risking their own data for months and years. Really, there are other cheaper ways of backing up computer files, but base on my own experience, there is no fun in having to reload the operating system and data several times in a year.

The reason I mention this, is because backing up on USB flash devices, CD´s or DVD´s are certainly other options, but they don’t provide enough space to save a system image, which is one of the great features of the Backup and Restore tool within windows.

Is that, you don´t only want to save your files, you also want Windows to create a full system image which you can use in the event of a hardware failure or if you need to reinstall the operating system for any unforeseen circumstance.

With this said, locally backing up computer files on another hard drive within the same computer or using an external hard drive are among the most common and options.

Using an external drive is more practical in the sense that you can take it to another computer, which is easier than opening the computer and removing the secondary drive to then install it inside another computer.

Also, it becomes more practical because a lot of people have portable computers as opposed to desktops. However, the option of an internal hard drive is more save because it is carried around or moved less than the external hard drive. Since accidents are possible, an internal drive, if possible, becomes the safest option for backing up computer files locally.

For employees of a business, another reliable option is to back up to their network. This option is good since the information is kept on a secure server, however, users could have limited access to recovering their files at a given moment. For this reason, a local backup should not be replaced solely by a network backup.

Additionally, with the increase of technology, there are online backup services and backup software solutions. Features, advantages and benefits of these services have significantly gone beyond the traditional back up methods explained above.

Backing up computer files online might be an option that you should consider. One of the key benefits is that your data is stored on secure servers and you can access it from anywhere in the world, in many cases even using mobile devices.

 When you consider that your external hard drive where you back up files can loss or be stolen, online backup solutions could become part of your decision plans in order to have a continuous and reliable back up of your files.

Real back up solutions basically consist of two things:

1. Ways to securely store important files and system images on different locations other than where the actual computer or mobile device is, an
2. Effective ways to restore this data.

Good back up solutions are crucial for home users or small businesses that don´t have budget to pay for an IT staff or buy hardware equipment to backup, and also for mid – large corporations.  The key is to find the proper solution based on your needs, because data loss is always right around the corner.

For home users or businesses that cannot afford the cost of a professional backup solution, the best recommendations are:

1. Make sure to properly configure automatic backups using the Backup and Restore utility included with your operating system. Your external hard drive should be kept connected to the system to avoid skipping the schedule.

1. Find an alternative to take or have the backup device at another place different from where the computer is at.  To help yourself a little bit, seriously think about the impact of natural disasters in a specific area, and why it is important not to have the backup in the same place, or near the same place.

If Tim and his cousin live in the same town, and he takes the backup to his cousin´s house: how safe would it be if a natural disaster hits that town. That´s how important it is to work on finding other back up solutions.

You will need to be very consistent on following these advices, and the majority of people get tired of good practices like these, and abandon the plan, which leaves there data in a complete risk.

Ideally, whether you are a home user or large corporation, effective back up solutions should require very minimal action and maintenance from end users, and they should be done online in a fully automated way by running in the background whenever the computer is connected to the internet.  In most cases, a client software or agent needs to be installed and configured on the computer as a requirement to run backups normally.

For small or medium business with mobile workers, their systems are usually more likely to be lost or stolen, and they are not conscious about the value of backing up files, so even if they are trained to do so, it is very possible that they will not be consistent running backups.  In this case, finding an alternative solution like the one described above, where a copy of the files is continuously stored remotely whenever the user goes on the internet is very essential.

Additionally, if you are interested in managing the backup more locally, or at your own remote facility instead of using back up solutions, there is a large investment that you´ll need to make in hardware,  software and deployment. You´ll need to have a special room for servers, tape backup devices, and trained staff for this.

Today many companies are offering backup services to help you cut down on cost. They manage the hardware, software and technical difficulties while you pay a small monthly fee.

There data centers offer high redundancy, and your data is encrypted with the same methods that are used in banks and entities that handle confidential information.

You are also able to retrieve your data from anywhere in the world, and most importantly, many of them are coming up with applications to install on mobile devices to ensure you don´t lose data, while you can also restore important files directly from the mobile devices.