How many files, documents, photos, music or other important data maybe sitting on your laptop right now? What if it was all lost, would that be a problem for you? I know it would be a major one for me.
Many people neglect this issue until it is too late and then the regret and devastation can be horrible. Backing up important data on a regular basis is crucial for business laptops and work data, and is usually a regular part of their daily tasks, but it’s something that is important for the home and personal users and something that is often forgot about, overlooked and neglected until it is too late. Buying cheap laptop computers is something that is foremost on everyone's mind, but once purchased doing regular laptop data backup is simply crucial.
How Data Can Be Lost
There are numerous ways that people can lose data on their laptops. To put it in simple terms, nothing in the computer industry is fool proof. Hard drives can crash, the laptop can get stolen, it can drop and break, viruses and malware can destroy data and the computer itself and along with it any files or docs that maybe on it.
There is no mistaking the fact that over a million laptops have been stolen over the years in the United States alone. Anytime a laptop is stolen, chances are that it won’t be recovered. If the information wasn’t backed up, then the owner will be left with no laptop – but more importantly – no backed up data either.
Some malware, like Trojans, root kits and worms can disable any booting of computers, eat internal system files which prevents access to data, or actually infect precious files and if you should need a complete reformat of the drive then all the files and documents will be wiped away.
Don’t leave this to chance, the above can and does happen everyday to tons of people and so it’s crucial to be sure and always have your data backed up in one of several ways.
Options for Easy Laptop Data Backup
There are three ways to easily back up data on laptops and even store big files remotely as to not take up precious limited laptop hard drive space. The three main methods is with CD’s, USB flash drives and my personal favorite, online data backup service. Here is an overview of each option.
A. Online Data Backup – Best Option!
This is my favorite option because it’s an automatic, set it and forget it system that offers unlimited backup that sits securely on the service provider’s server and can be accessed any time, from any place to any computer. Set up an account, download the software, set up the files you want to save, select the backup frequency and all backup is done automatically as per your settings.
Mozy Online Data Backup is the service I use and recommend. They offer a free option for up to 2GB totally free online backup and only $4.95 per month for Mozy unlimited backup. Their backup is light on system resources, highly customizable and very affordable.
B. USB Flash Drive
These are handy little plug-in gadgets that have a lot more space than CD-RW disks. They simply plug-in into the USB port of your laptop and can store quite a bit of data. They are ultra small and are easy to carry, transport and store.
Besides using these for data back up, they are also highly useful to store photos and music files on a permanent basis since they are so convenient and keeping big files like photos on a flash drive is a great way to conserve the limited computer hard drive space that is often found with laptops as opposed to that on desktops.
The amount of data that you can actually store on a flash drive is quite a lot and will depend on the size you get, they come in, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 128GB.
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Types of Flash Drives
Super Fast Flash Drives
These feature ultra high read and write speeds.
- OCZ ATV Turbo
- Corsair Flash Voyager GT
- Lexar JumpDrive Lightning
Rugged Flash Drives
These are the really rugged models that are made with an ultra strong casing, like metal, titanium and rubber. The actual storage unit is protected by an ultra rugged casing, which can even withstand a wash cycle and still keep the data inside it safe, for those who may forget in the pocket and take it through a spin cycle in the wash.
- OCZ ATV Turbo
- Corsair Flash Voyager GT
- Corsair Flash Survivor GT
- SanDisk Cruzer Titanium
- Imation Clip Flash Drive
High Security Flash Drives
These come with higher levels of security, like encryption of data.
- SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus
- Ironkey
- Kingston Data Traveler Secure
Biometric USB Flash Drives
These come with finger print authentication requirement to gain access for security and ultra sensitive data.
- SanDisk Cruzer Profile
- Lexar JumpDrive TouchGuard
- Sony Micro Vault with Fingerprint ID
Shop for These Flash Drives on eBay
C. Backup Data with CD Disks
Using your laptop’s CD-RW drive you can save your files to a CD disk. The RW disks are rewriteable so that means that you can just keep over writing new files over the old ones on a single disk each day. This method is effective, but takes time, and can become a nuisance if it needs to be done on a daily basis. Also, depending on the amount of data you have to save the space on each disk can be limited. Overall, data CDs can hold up to 700 MB of data
