Back that thing up!!!

I was thinking this morning about my backup solution and I figured it'd be a good thing to write about here. Using a second/external hard drive or DVDs is all well and good, but it doesn't really offer as much protection as one needs. In case of a fire, likely everything is gone. Thats where using an Internet backup solution is a big win. Its already located "off-site" so you don't have to worry about any problems you have locally

I use http://www.idrive.com. For $4.95/month they offer "unlimited" personal backup space. Fine print says 150GB = unlimited. Which is interesting because when I checked my account, I'm up to 190GB. Yes, it takes a while to upload that much, even over broadband but the piece of mind is worth it. Not to mention they offer a few things that most local backups don't.

1. They actually back up your data. Lets face it, most of us are lazy about backups. With this service, install the software, configure it and let it go.
2. Multiple versions. They perform differential and incremental backups. What does this mean to you? Say you're working on a letter or a book. Something you're working on for several days. You make a bunch of changes, save it and then realize, no, this is crap, I want to go to last week's version. Connect to the software and download last week's version. If I remember correctly they either keep 30 days or 30 versions, I forget which.
3. Off-site, which I already touched on.

There are many players in the online backup game, do some research, find the one you like and go with it. In the long run it is not that expensive and the cost is well worth the time you will save if you ever have to use the restore option.