How many times have you lost documents on your computer because something crashed? It’s a hassle and it’s one that can be easily avoided if you backup all of your documents. Most of us still waste time doing this manually which means we often don’t have a backup of our most recent work. This tends to defeat the purpose of backing it up at all since the most recent stuff is usually what we want back when a computer crashes. The solution that makes the most sense is to start using an online backup system which typically saves copies of everything onto the Internet so that you can easily restore it if your computer goes out on you.
Ten of the top choices for online backup service are:1.
JungleDisk. This is another of the most popular options for online backup. It’s affordable although there’s an additional small fee for not just the software but also for a subscription to the Amazon S3 web data storage program. It’s still considered a fair price. People seem to love that it has a lot of options for scheduling backup and making changes to it.
2.
IDrive. There are several reasons that you might enjoy this backup service. It’s got some storage offered entirely for free so it’s great if you’re just starting to figure out whether online backup is even for you or not. It’s also got a lot of great additional features (like advanced search functions and drag-and-drop restoration) that can be used by people who do already like online backup and who want to be able to do more with it.
3.
SOS Online Backup. This is another backup service that offers a lot of additional features for those users who want to do a lot with the service. It tends to be more user-friendly than IDrive according to most people, though, so you may find that it’s the better of the two choices if you’re just starting out and aren’t quite confident in your own tech-savvy skills. It’s received numerous awards so it’s certainly a good choice.
4.
Mozy. This seems to be a top choice for a lot of individuals and businesses. One reason is because it’s been around for several years now and it’s consistently gotten better as time has gone on. People love this service because it’s extremely user-friendly and backup goes pretty quickly whether you’re doing a first-time backup of everything or just your regular ongoing backup storage. Mozy tends to be relatively affordable too which is always a plus; unlimited backup is offered at less than $5 per month.
5.
Abacus Online Backups. This is another service with a free trial that you may want to check out before deciding which service to use. This one is nice because the trial is guaranteed to be fully-functional which isn’t the case with all of them. It’s affordable and easy to use so it’s another popular choice.
6.
IBackup. This is a service that offers a bit more personalized experience than some of the others. It allows you to choose from eight different application downloads which each have different interfaces and different features. This means that you really get a lot to play around with when choosing this online backup service. However, it’s pricier than a lot of the other options so you have to pay for what you want to get.
7.
Carbonite. This is an interesting service in the sense that people seem to either love it or hate it. It seems to be best for those people who don’t plan on storing a whole lot of stuff but who do want to easily store some items. People who are looking to just store basic text documents and spreadsheets should find that this is a good choice to consider using. People who want to store media may want to look at other options. Their free trial is worth a look at least though.
8.
Box.net. This service is considered one of the top online backup services that also doubles as a filesharing service. People who are interested in sharing their files between multiple computers or with others that they work with may find that an online backup version of their documents that can be easily shared through the system is a really good choice that kills two birds with one stone.
9.
Drop.io. This is another service that is used as much for filesharing as it is for online backup. It’s affordable and easy-to-use. This one is really focused more on the collaboration features of the product so it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a tool for someone seeking only online backup but could be good for people who want more of the sharing aspect.
10.
Memeo Backup. People who are sharing files and doing work together within an office may also want to use a more advanced backup system. Memeo is one that offers the chance to assign a manager or administrator who can review the backup information of others working on the same project. This helps in organizing documents between shared computers and keeping everyone on task and on top of things.
The type of online backup service that you want to get is really going to depend a lot on what you need it for. If you’re storing a lot of media then you want a service with a lot of storage. If you’re storing documents that you share with others then you want a backup service that has collaboration features. These ten choices are a good place to start in your search for online backup options.
