| For any home user there are many reasons to | | | | attachable drive bay with as much space as you |
| backup your data. In case of hard drive failure, fire, | | | | need. A drive with anywhere from 500GB to 1TB will |
| flood, computer crashes etc. There are also many | | | | cost anywhere from $150 to $300 depending on the |
| ways to preserve your data with different types of | | | | size of the drive. Once the data is copied over, you |
| backup solutions. | | | | need to find a way to protect it in case of disaster. |
| The easiest and most inexpensive way to backup | | | | You can put it in a fire proof safe or possibly at a |
| data such as pictures, home movies, or financial data | | | | trusted person's house. Keep in mind though if you |
| is to burn the files to a DVD. That way, in case of | | | | are adding data regularly you will want to backup at |
| data loss or if you have to rebuild your computer, | | | | least once a week. To avoid copying the same data |
| you just simply put in your DVD with the data on it | | | | twice, use a program similar to AllWay Sync, it will |
| and copy it back to where it should be. If you do not | | | | read both sides of data, compare them and only |
| have a DVD burning program, they typically cost | | | | copy the changes. |
| about $30. With that you will be able to choose what | | | | Another solution which makes it easy to save data |
| data goes on each DVD and can be a much easier | | | | offsite is by using an online backup solution. These |
| way to organize your data. There are various backup | | | | sites can be found by searching for a remote offsite |
| programs on my site. I can't stress enough though, | | | | backup solution. They will charge you a monthly fee |
| once the data is backed up please move the discs | | | | typically and can be very expensive depending on |
| off site from your home. If there is a fire you will | | | | how much data you have. There is also the |
| lose the data on both the computer and your | | | | argument of them having access to your data which |
| backups. If you cannot find a place to put them | | | | is something I personally do not like. |
| away from home, buy a DATA fire safe. They cost | | | | In the end, the choice is up to you. I highly |
| a couple hundred dollars, but if you try to put a dollar | | | | recommend some type of backup solution and I |
| amount on your data the price is well worth the | | | | have personally suffered the consequences of not |
| investment. | | | | doing so. I lost all of me wedding pictures and the |
| If you do not like burning DVDs or you just have too | | | | first four months worth of pictures of my son |
| much data to copy. I highly recommend purchasing an | | | | because my hard drive crashed. |