Backing up ain't hard to do

Backing up data is something that you know you should do. It ruins the fine line between "it needs to be done today, but I'll do it tomorrow", between bits being there and then being gone forever. It happens everyday; a hard drive fails, a virus wipes out data, a simple mistake wipes out years of memories and efforts.

Backing up simply means achiving your data somewhere other than the place in which it is already stored. While there are many ways and stategies to back up your data, three basic solutions work well for many people. In the field of information technology during the days of yore, backing up was commonly done on tape, a duplicate hard drive or, later, even within stacks of floppy disks. These days, with DVD burners, large external drives and even economical USB flash drives, backing up data has never been easier or faster.

Most people are just fine if they have to restore a system back to an original configuration using the restore partitions or install disks that came with their systems - but what they should really make a practice of, is saving their important files (music, videos , games, documents and photos).

For these crucial, personal files, third-party solutions need to be considered - purchasing a spacious external hard drive with an integrated backup program, for example.

Another consideration would be an offsite storage solution (very helpful in situations such as a house fire). High-speed internet and free and paid backup services such as Symantec's SwapDrive are also of great help. And with cloud computing gathering momentum, storing your data online is becoming a more viable option.

Source: www.geeks.com