Fall Cleaning: Back Up Your Computer

USB flash drives are small tools that can help back-up the data on your computer.
[PHOTO: Consumer Reports]

Any computer clean-up plan should also include a backup strategy. In fact, backing up your computer is probably one of the most important things you can do, and it won’t cost you much at all.

We recommend three ways to back up your data. You can either buy an external hard drive, use a high-capacity flash drive, or set up a subscription with a low-cost online storage site. Here’s a quick look at each option. For more details, take a look at our Computer Backup System Buying Guide (available to subscribers).

External hard drive. Easy to install, an external hard drive usually requires a simple USB connection to your computer. With some, you may not even need software to get the backups running. They also don’t cost much, so you should be able to get a drive that meets your needs for $150 or less. Get a drive that’s at least the size of your current hard drive. If you get one smaller than that, make sure you weigh your future needs as well. Homes with more than one computer will need a networkable hard drive, which costs a bit more and is harder to set up, but a convenient way to share files across all your systems. The downside of an external drive: Most are not very portable.

USB flash drives. Tiny and convenient, USB flash drives have gotten large enough to serve as backup devices. Like external drives, they’re easy to set up, and may run backups without requiring extra software. A 32GB backup drive should cost between $150 and $200. Best of all, you can carry the drive around with you. But that portability can also be a danger, since flash drives are easy to lose or steal.

Online services. One worry with storing backups at home is the potential for theft, fire, or other catastrophic loss. Online storage provides an option outside your house, adding an extra layer of protection by storing your data in multiple locations. We looked at a few sites, and found that they’re easy to use but slow, especially during the initial backup. But you don’t have to worry about setting up any hardware, and you can access your data from any Internet connection. Costs vary, but two of those we reviewed were about $50 a year for unlimited backup.

Subscribers can check out our Guide to computer backup products for reviews on various data storage solutions. —Donna Tapellini

Comments

[James Carbon]

everyday,my computer is backed up.It is very important for me,specially in my daily job, i am planning to buy a flash drive it cost $150 and it is 5GB,what do you think of that?

[achat ordinateur]

Here you have given three option to take a back up! all three are very useful! I knew about only two! but third one option is good! I will follow the On-line services whenever I will get chance! Thank you for sharing such a nice article with us.

[kcl2349027]

I personal recommend backing up your system daily. I was using a flash drive until it failed. I currently use an online service. Highly recommend the online service.

[Cheryl]

My computer is backed up every day by Carbonite.

[Mason]

If you are paying $150-$200 for a 32GB flash drive, you are paying way too much. Places like Newegg sell them for about half that price.

[Shawn]

A word of caution about Mozy, an online backup service... their file restores can be very slow, at least with the MozyHome product. If you upgrade operating systems in the process, expect your restore to take even longer. Mine would have taken 2-3 weeks. I gave up and moved the files myself, and had a bad experience trying to reach someone in customer service. Even a restore to the same operating system can take days, so just make sure you get the critical items first, and don't expect much help from Mozy reprentatives.