Backing up your files is probably the most important thing to do regularly, regardless of whether you are running a small office or just keeping track of your personal stuff. Having lost all my data in my Windows XP computer back in 2005, I know the pain of losing all my documents and photos. In this article, I will be showing you the best free backup software I use and recommend.
While many companies just choose to use RAID hard drives for backup, which basically means that they don't have to worry about backup software at all because their data is automatically copied 1, 2, 3 or even more times into their hard drives. However, for consumers with a smaller budget, that probably isn't the way to go unless you have a hoard of illegally downloaded videos in your computer and you are running out of space. Then again, you most probably won't need to worry about losing your videos. (Note: Due to the nature of online backup, I will not be talking about video backup. It just isn't possible to quickly upload/access videos that you upload online due to the space it takes up. For video, you might be better off uploading to YouTube.)
Moving on, let's first talk about the mammoth company Windows' online backup software, SkyDrive. This is probably the best free online backup service in terms of the amount of data you can save, a whooping 25 GB. I have never seen another free service where you can even reach 10 GB so this totally blew me away. Due to the insane amount of space you can get with this service, I would recommend that you use this if you have lots of photos to store. Despite its large space however, I personally don't use this (despite having tried it before) because of the "ease of use factor". I found it difficult to download entire folders and it was a nightmare to organize the online data. For example, you would have to transfer files into folder individually for a newly created folder.
MozyHome is most probably one of the best online backup services. It backs up once locally and once online for you and the best thing is that it is a set and forget thing. Once you download the program and spell out the type of files you want to backup, it will do it automatically for you. The downside? It only gives 2GB of space, after which it costs $4.95 per month (which I personally think is a bargain for media powerhouses because the price stays the same regardless of the amount of data files you save). However, I personally don't use this because of the constant reminders I get from the software to upgrade.
Now, the program I personally use and recommend is Dropbox. I am not affiliated to it in any way. I am but a really satisfied user of their online backup service. It gives 2 GB of space as well and is a syncing software. Basically, when you install the program, you get a dropbox folder in your documents folder (or anywhere you choose actually). By placing any files you want in there, it is automatically uploaded silently online. While it does take some time for larger files, it is real speedy for documents. Furthermore, if you use multiple computers, installing the program on multiple computer logging using the same account allows you to sync files across all of these computers. This is the function I use the most because I sync documents between my laptop and desktop regularly.
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