Every week 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States.
That fact alone should be enough to frighten every computer owner on the planet. We all have photographs, movies, important documents, emails, etc. that we do not want to lose for any reason, yet I find very few PC users who regularly backup the contents of their computer(s). Every one of us has experienced a moment when we thought our PC had crashed and the first thought was “I should have backed up my files!” Why is it then that so few people perform regular backups? Is is Time…. Money…. Knowledge?
Whatever the hurdle is, it is time to overcome it and protect our important files from permanent deletion. There are several theories on what makes a “safe” backup, but we are going to focus on online backups. Why? Because external hard drives or CD/DVD backups are great, but they are almost never stored in an off-site location. Natural disasters and fires don’t show any mercy when it comes to destroying a home or an entire community, so let’s prepare for the worst scenario and secure our files in a secondary location.
