This is a question that I’ve struggled with for most of the years I’ve been using a computer. The other day I was at Best Buy dropping off my laptop at the same time as a college-aged young man. Since he was there before me I got to hear them ask the usual question, “When was the last time you backed up your information?” His answer, – “Never.”. The next question was, “What do you have on here?” “Oh, about 1000 songs and all my class papers.” For the price of a flash drive he could have easily backed up all his papers, but now it was going to cost him over $100 to have them recover his work.
So, how much backup is necessary? How should you do it? I plan to share a bit about my travels down the backup road.
Way back before flash drives, I used CDs and DVDs to back up everything – sometimes not as often as I should have, since it was such a hassle. My DVD burner had some frustrating habits, so I often chose to forgo backing up as often as I really should have. Thankfully, I never had to pay a great price for my negligence.
Then I spent almost every spare moment for months scanning in 7000+ slides for my father–in-law and the years that we only took slides and I had no photos. Suddenly losing all my work took on new meaning, so I bought an external hard drive and started using that for back-up. One day, about 10 months after I began using it, I plugged it in and nothing happened! The external hard drive had failed. Thankfully, my computer didn’t fail at the same time. The external hard drive was still under warranty and they replaced it, but my faith in them was certainly shaken.
When flash drives became available I fell in love with their ease-of-use and I still maintain my external hard drive, but back up my daily work to one of several flash drives.
We live in Minnesota – land of tornados – and this has been a very active tornado season. We had one about 100 miles from here that totally destroyed a dozen or more houses, which got me to thinking about backups once more. Sure, I’ve been diligent to back up on a daily basis, but all my backups are in this house. So…if a tornado comes along, or my house burns down, or we get robbed – I’ll still lose everything I’ve worked so hard on. Did I mention I’ve been an avid scrapbook hobbyist for many years now? Everything is scanned into my computer and stored on my external hard drive, but…
I tend to be a worrier, so I took this situation to the Lord, and my dear husband. I had read about several online backup services, but I’m not very tech savvy so I dismissed them, thinking I would never figure it out. Drop and drag or plug and play is about as technical as I get.
I do subscribe to PC World magazine – not that I understand it – but I do managed to get some helpful information – like the time my laptop had an issue and they had an article about that very issue being covered under warranty. Anyway, I decided to check out some online backup services, since I had read about them in reference to digital scrapbooking.
The one recommended by PC World was MozyHome. Since they had 2 GB of free storage, I decided to try it. Amazingly, I’ve found it very user-friendly!
Some features I especially like (besides the fact that it’s not written in Geek!) are:
128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection. It also backs up your favorites from IE.
Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.
You can set it to back up only what you want and when you want. There is an option to have it back up after your computer has been idle for a certain amount of time – how great is that. You can also adjust the speed of the upload so you can continue to work during that initial upload period.
And you get 2 GB of storage space FREE!
But… you can also get an additional 256 MB of storage by signing up here: MozyHome (I will also get an additional 256 MB of free storage! It’s a win – win situation.) After you sign up and upload your material you can refer people and continue to get additional free space.
If you are saving photos you know it doesn’t take long to fill up 2 GB of space, so the option of getting additional free storage space is great!
You can also purchase unlimited space for $4.95 a month.
As you know, I don’t often use my blog as a platform to sell things, (or in this case to bring a free offer to your attention) but I am excited about MozyHome and wanted to share it with you. I love saving money and being able to protect the photo pages and articles I’ve worked so hard on – and being able to do it with so little effort and time on my part.
Hoping you will find this information helpful,
Phyllis
Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
http://www.Phyllis-Sather.com
© 2008 Phyllis Sather
All rights reserved
Contact me at: Phyllis@Phyllis-Sather.com
1 Comment
trish brandon
Phyllis –
Thank you so much – this is something I also have been thinking about, but putting off.
I will definitely check it out.
Blessings,
TRISH