Backing up your computer data

Let me just say right up front… this post is going to get geeky!

But I want to share with you a fantastic service for backing up the data on your computer. This solution is not free, but is very inexpensive. I will share a couple of free options tomorrow.

First of all, backing up your data is critical! Most people don’t, however, because they don’t know how, don’t think they need to, or don’t want to take the time. But the stories are always the same…. when your hard drive crashes, your data is gone and then you wish you would have backed it up (I hear this over and over and over).

One of the most precious items we save on our computers is photos from our digital cameras. If you lose a hard drive, your photos might be lost forever. Back them up!

The solution I use starts with an application called Jungle Disk. Jungle Disk costs $20 and can run on a PC, Mac, Linux, or a USB key (all platforms), and performs all the needed functions of backup software. But the really cool feature of Jungle Disk is that it will allow you to upload your files to storage servers hosted by Amazon S3 Storage Service.

You can “rent” storage space on Amazon servers for 15 cents per Gigabyte per month, and there is no limit. If you’re concerned about the privacy of you data, you can also encrypt it with Jungle Disk. Another thing that Jungle Disk does is it gives you immediate access to your data through a drive letter on your PC. For instance, you can assign the “J” drive to be mapped to Amazon S3 and have complete access to your data via Windows Explorer (PC) or the Finder (Mac).

And finally, Jungle Disk has an option to save backups for an extended period of time. So for example, if you accidentally delete a file, or need to access a previous version of a document, just navigate to your “J” drive and fetch it back to your computer.

Finally, storing your data off-site is good in case of extreme disasters like a tornado, fire or robbery.

Give Jungle Disk a look! It costs me less than $2 a month and it all runs automatically. Once you set it up you are good to go.

Tomorrow, I’ll share information on two other online (free) backup solutions.