We have spoken many times about how important it is to backup your data. There are many options out there for backing up your data. Discs, CD's, DVD's, External Hard Drives, USB sticks, NAS servers or even online cloud storage are all viable options for backup.
I personally back up my system on a monthly basis;
all of my website logos, documents, letterheads and all of my family photos, blog posts that have not yet been published and all other important documents to the cloud.
I use 3 free services (and paid): Dropbox, Box.net and ADrive. All of these services offer a free and paid subscription.
I also back up my whole computer on an external hard drive every 6 months and store the drive off-site. This is a vital part of keeping all of your important data safe. I also have a copy of my operating system on a set of CDs ready to be used if anything ever happened.
I don't have to go through the painstaking process of having to copy all of the website files over to the DropBox folder on my computer, because the actual website folder is stored on my DropBox system and ready to be accessed from any computer or mobile device.
I use Box.net to store all of my sheet music and personal/family files. I love box.net for a number of reasons:
- Simple interface
- 50gb of storage for free if you sign up through an iOS device
- Easy to share files with others who don't have a Box.net account.
These are all factors that make the service more appealing to anyone wanting online storage.
Adrive is a free 50gb online storage service which works very well. I do not use this as much now because of my 50gb Box subscription.
Most of my documents are handled by an online service: Google Docs. I love Google Docs because it is so easy to use and you have an almost unlimited amount of storage (with your Google Account). There is also an option to upload Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files to the server and be able to share, collaborate and edit them online.
All of these services combined basically take care of my worries reagrding hard drive failure or my notebook computer gets stolen.
Remember - GET BACKING UP NOW!
