Best Online Backup « Best Online Backup

“If Your Computer Won’t Turn On Tomorrow, What Will You Do?” Panic?

Do you have backups of all your documents, photos, videos and music?

I recommend you use an online backup service

You’d be amazed at how many of my clients don’t when I first meet them.

As an IT teacher and a computer troubleshooter, I’m often in danger of sounding like a cracked record – “do your backups” is a frequent cry of mine.

	“Your Data Is Your Responsibility” “YOU are responsible for the safety of your data”
	“Your data is NOT my responsibility” “Your data is NOT the responsibility of your husband/wife/son/daughter/neighbour or the person in the computer repair shop”

It’s YOUR data and it’s YOUR responsibility to protect it!

What do I mean by backup?

I mean have at least one other copy and preferably two or three copies of all your important documents and files all in different places.

Consider these scenarios – they are all true and all have happened to my own clients or family:

Your office is beside a major river which is flooding. The army have just arrived and told you to leave immediately. Your computer and external hard drive have to be left to drown.

Graham was one of the sensible ones. At the end of every day he backed up the computer in his office to his external hard drive, took the backup home with him in the car and transferred all the data to his home PC.

You run a holiday lettings business. Your computer hard drive has just crashed and all your booking and client details are on it.

Elise phoned me in a panic. It was June, the start of a busy season. Her laptop wouldn’t boot. Her PC was still working, but all her booking details were on the laptop and there was no backup. I could do nothing to rescue the laptop and she dissolved into tears. Fortunately she had the printed booking details. We knuckled down and spent two hours reconstructing the booking calendar. Those two hours cost her MORE than a year’s subscription to an online backup service.

You have nearly finished writing your first novel and your hard drive has become unusable due to malware.

This client has since become a reasonably well known author. Respected enough that her books command a 5 figure advance fee. IMAGINE what would have happened to her writing career if I hadn’t been able to rescue that book. She had no backup copies at all.

You have just upgraded your office computer’s operating system and spent hours re-uploading all the software and re-installing the drivers. Your boss phones you the next morning to say he can’t turn the computer on.

That was my boss. He rang me at 8am. I had backed up every last file, folder and email. He panicked, I didn’t.

You woke up to find your house had been burgled during the night and your son’s laptop with all this school coursework on had been stolen.

I don’t know what happened to this client’s son. All his GCSE course work was on that laptop. Some of it might have been on the school’s computer too. Some of it might have been on her teacher’s computer. Some of it might have been lost. YOUR CHILD HAS WORKED HARD on their exam coursework, DON’T LET THEM LOSE IT. A year’s subscription to an online backup service costs so little.

You’re a professional photographer. You’ve just finished uploading some photos to your website using ftp software. Your photos are stored on an high capacity external drive connected to your computer. You decide to “tidy up” the screen in your ftp software and remove all the files on your backup drive (don’t ask!!!!!). Too late, you realise you just deleted ALL your photos from your hard drive.

I wish I could say that I made that one up – but I didn’t.

I could continue, believe me I have a very long list – but I’m sure you get the point. All these situations were potential disaster for the computer owners.

The solution? Backups.

Backups are good – you can’t have too many.

How Should I Backup my Data

Q. Can you think of an obvious flaw for most traditional methods?

A. Location. As a general rule, all of these backup media are kept in the same location as the computer.

Suppose your computer is stolen, along with the external hard-drive.
Suppose there is a fire in your office.
Suppose your office floods?

What will happen to your backups?

You need an OFF SITE backup.

There is a simple, and effective answer and one that I personally wouldn’t be without.

Remote, online backup.

Purchase a subscription to a dedicated, online backup service and you never need to worry again about making sure your documents and files are backed up. The backup software will backup all new files/folders etc as soon as they are added to your computer.

There is no need to remember to backup regularly – the backup service takes care of that.

Protect Your Computer Files-Box

There is no need to worry about your backup disappearing along with your computer - the backup is offsite and secure.

Purchase a subscription to the best online backup right now and you will sleep more soundly tonight.

What Are The Advantages Of Using A Remote Backup Service?

Your backups happen automatically. There is NO NEED TO REMEMBER to backup each week or each day. Your computer will AUTOMATICALLY backup your new or changes files so long as it is connected to the internet.

You can access your files from anywhere. No need to have your own computer with you – you can access your data online from any computer by logging into your online user area.

All your data is stored safely, off site. If your computer is stolen or damage, if there is a fire or flood that destroys your office, your data is safe.

For many people those precious family photos are the most important thing on their computer. Those wedding photos, baby photos, family events photos. They are irreplaceable and priceless family memories. Don’t be the mug that loses them. Keep them safe for this generation and future generations. Use an online backup service to store them safely.

What Are You Waiting For?

I’m sure you’ve read enough by now. In case you haven’t, here are a few screenshots of Mozy in action on my own computer.

You can choose to back up automatically, or to back up to a schedule of your choice. If you want you can also start the backup manually. My backups happen automatically as soon as the computer is idle.

If you need to restore files, or just check what has been backed up, you can do it via the mozy interface on your computer or by logging into your Mozy account at the Mozy website. This means you can access your backed up files from any computer, anywhere.

There really isn’t much more for me to say, except to ask why you read this far down the page? You know you need to set up the best online backup service, and you know you should do it now. So ——- do it!!!