Why you really should be using an online backup service
Ever since hard disk drives and SSDs became the mass storage media of choice for computer users, the need for a fast, effective and efficient means of backing up mountains of data has been rather apparent.
First, we PC users backed up the precious data on our hard drives onto stacks of floppy disks.
When that became too cumbersome and time consuming we switched to streaming tape drives.
Next came CD-R's, DVD-R's and external hard drives.
Unfortunately, each of these methods of backing up a drive on-site shared one huge, glaring flaw: If disaster such as a fire or tornado struck the building, all was lost. But now there is a much more secure option...
Online backup services augment your local backup routine by adding a redundant backup option that's totally immune from any catastrophes that might strike your home or place of business.
Most online backup services automatically back up your data on the fly, then if the unthinkable happens you can easily restore it back onto a new computer.
All of those photos of the grandkids, your emails, Office documents and more - literally every document have created or received from someone else - is safely tucked away on a faraway server (that is itself typically backed up multiple times a day).
Sure, you should still make local backups, and modern external hard drives and SSDs make the process extremely easy. But if you truly value the data and memories stored on your computer, there is no substitute for the ultimate safety provided by a local backup routine that's augmented by an online backup service.
And by the way, the need for backups isn't limited to just laptops and desktop computers. You need one for your smartphone and tablet as well.
While Android devices, iPhones and iPads can easily take advantage of the online storage plans provided by Google and Apple, most third party online backup services bundle regular backups for mobile devices along with their computer backup plans.
There are a number of online data backup services available at reasonable prices, including Carbonite, iDrive and a host of others.
Bottom line: Always having a recent backup on hand is the only truly effective way to guarantee that you'll be able to recover your precious and irreplaceable files after experiencing a drive failure or some type of natural disaster. But if you want unbeatable protection you really need to create a redundant backup plan.
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