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WelchWrite Main -- Douglas E. Welch -- Rosanne Welch


Where's your backup?

December 14, 1999

© 1999, Douglas E. Welch


When you need to talk to a tech support person about a computer problem, I can almost guarantee that the first question out of their mouth is "Where's your backup?" Making a backup, a secondary copy of your data, is one of the most important aspects of basic computer maintenance, but so many of us neglect it. It is only when we have a major crash and lose data that we find out how foolhardy we have been. Thankfully, now there is almost no excuse not to backup your data. If your computer has access to the Internet there are several free or inexpensive services that allow you to move data to a remote computer to protect it.

The services below all work on the same basic principle. They provide you with a certain amount of free hard disk space on their servers that you can access via your web browser. Some of the services also allow you to use your disk space to share sounds, MP3 music files, pictures and other information with your friends. Another big advantage is the ability to access your data from any other Internet connected computer. This can help you when you are traveling or if your main computer becomes totally disabled. In my volunteer work as an Internet trainer at my local library I often deal with people who don't have their own computer. Internet backup services allow them to make the most of their library computer access.

XDrive

XDrive is a free service that provides 25 megabytes (MB) of free disk space and provides most of the services mentioned above, including web browser access and file sharing. Additionally, Windows users can download a free application that integrates their "X" drive directly into their Windows desktop. Once this software is installed they can access the "X" drive as easily as their hard disk or floppy disk drive.

iDrive

iDrive is very similar to xDrive. You have the ability to make your files public or private, share them with others and access them from any computer. While it is less integrated with the Windows Desktop, iDrive does provide software, called Sync, to help you synchronize folders on your local hard disk with your iDrive. For example, you could keep a folder called "BackUp" on your local hard disk. Sync can then automatically synchronize all of these files with you iDrive storage space, updating any changed files as necessary. As with xDrive, Sync is a Windows-only solution although Macintosh and Unix users can still access their space using their web browsers.

Yahoo Briefcase

Yahoo Briefcase is designed for the less sophisticated user rather than those looking for heavy-duty backup solutions. Only providing 10 MB of space per user, Briefcase is more of a file sharing mechanism than a backup service. Still, this is one more example of how search engine/portal sites are trying to be all things to all people. They continue to add services in an effort to draw more users to their advertisers. If you are already a user of other Yahoo services, this might be the place to start.

Other services

There are far more Internet backup sites than I can detail, but here are 2 more services to check out. New services are being created every day.

StoragePoint

@Backup

Even if you don't have a backup tape drive, your floppy drive is broken or you have a floppy-less iMac, there is no longer any excuse for not backing up your important data. These Internet backup services could mean the difference between writing the "Great American Novel" and losing it in a hard disk crash. Better safe than sorry…especially when it is free!


Douglas E. Welch is a freelance writer and computer consultant in Van Nuys, California. He also writes Career Opportunities, a weekly column on high-tech careers and A Gardener's Notebook. You can find more of Douglas' writing on his web page at: http://www.welchwrite.com/

He can reached via email at douglas@welchwrite.com


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© 1999 Douglas E. Welch