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Backup & Storage Guide

On this page, take a look at your personal computer backup and storage choices, use links to comparative reviews of hardware, software and online services, and use links to how-to's.

Choices

• Hardware-- Your basic choices for backing up the data on the hard disk in your computer include using a USB flash drive, CD or DVD optical disk, or another hard disk including portables, external, networked attached storage (NAS), RAID, or a home server. For an introduction, see Data backup: Use it or lose it,Consumer Reports, October 2007 -- hard drives, flash drives, optical drives, online services, pros and cons.
• Software -- Options include selecting individual files & folders for backup, making an image backup of an entire HD, and/or incremental backup to replace or supplement old versions of files with new ones. To get started, see Tech Support Alert's lists of essential and desirable features of backup software and their backup FAQ; also see security below.
• Local, Offsite, Online -- An external HD sitting on your desk is great if your computer's HD fails but if your house burns down not so much. Put a full backup in a fire proof safe at home, in a safe deposit box at your bank, and/or stored with an online service provider.
• Two Are Better Than One -- First, do a full backup and then set up automatic incremental backups to a local device (see hardware above) and/or to an online service. Second, put a full copy of your archival data on a USB flash drive, CD, DVD or portable HD and secure it in a fireproof safe, safety deposit box and/or with an online storage service for offsite protection in case of flood, fire, theft, etc.
• Security -- Scan your HD for malware (spy, Trojan, virus, worm, etc.) before backing up otherwise you could be backing up the malware too. Internet Security Suites from  BitDefender, Bullguard, CA, McAfee, Microsoft, Norton and Panda include backup modules. Norton 360 v4 also includes 2 GB of hosted online storage.

Notable

• Carbonite Backs Up Your Files Online, Jon Jacobi, PC World, July 2, 2009
• ShadowProtect Backs Up and Recovers Your Files Locally, Steve Horton, PC World, May 29, 2009
• Will Your Data Disappear When Your Online Storage Site Shuts Down? Tom Spring, PC World, May 14, 2009
• Keep the Home Files Safely Backed up With MozyHome, Jon Jacobi, PC World, May 8, 2009
• Data Deposit Box 3.1, Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine, April 30, 2009
• Secure Hard Drives: Lock Down Your Data, Nicole Price Fasig, PC Magazine, March 11, 2009
• Easy Backup, Hard Drives Not Included, Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine, March 4, 2009

Comparative Reviews -- Hardware

• How to Buy Network Attached Storage (NAS), Eric Griffith, PC Magazine, October 14, 2009
• External Hard Drives: Reviews, Consumer Search, October 2009 -- best LaCie d2 Quadra, best portable Seagate FreeAgent Go, best mass storage network capable Western Digital My Book World Edition, best fire and water proof ioSafe Solo.
• USB Flash Drives Reviews, Consumer Search, March 2009: 23 reviews of 75 products -- Corsair Flash Survivor GT, Corsair Flash Voyager GT, Kingston DataTraveler DT1.
• Encrypted Drives Keep Your Files Safe, Andrew Brandt, PC World, February 3, 2009
• External Hard Drives: Stay-at-Home Protection, Joel Domingo, PC Magazine, January 21, 2009

Comparative Reviews -- Software

• Save Your Data With One of These Top Backup Programs, Jon Jacobi, PC World, July 22, 2008 -- NovaBackup 10 Pro, Retrospect 7.6 Pro, NTI Backup 5, Paragon Drive Backup 9, Titan Backup
• Our Favorite File-and-Folser Backup Tools, Edward Mendelson, PC Magazine, March 25, 2008
• Drive Imaging: Beyond Backup, Edward Mendelson, PC Magazine, February 12, 2008 -- Acronis True Image, Drive Image, Norton Ghost, Paragon Drive Backup Personal Edition, Shadow Protect Desktop (editor's choice)

Comparative Reviews -- Online Services

• Online Storage Services Review 2010 -- 12 products, TopTenReviews
• Online Backup Services Reviews, Consumer Search, October 2009 -- best Carbonite, best free Mozyhome Free, best file syncing SugarSync.
• Online backup services [mac & pc], Glenn Fleishman, Macworld, September 7, 2009

How-To

• How To Buy a NAS - The Short(er) Version, Tim Higgins, SmallNetBuilder, September 2, 2009
• 7 Backup Strategies for Your Data, Multimedia, and System Files, Lincoln Spector, PC World, August 25, 2009