i wish i had backed up my data!!! =(

"Why didn't i backup my data before my hard drive crashed?!?" "All my pictures and music were on that drive." "I just never got around to backing up." or "My laptop was stolen and it contained all my important documents."

Source: Aha! Jokes, http://www.AhaJokes.com/

These are just some of the many familiar things we hear from people in a panic because their computer failed or something terrible happened to their laptop or external storage device. Time and time again, we advise our clients to keep their data backed up continuously. Yet time and time again, we hear those excuses.

These days, there are several ways to backup data. One way is to manually back data up onto a CD or DVD or USB Stick. Of course, CD's and DVD's are limited in space and burning a CD or DVD each time you backup would be cumbersome and would eventually lead to a large library of CDs and DVDs. USB Drives come in various GB sizes and are much easier to write over and carry around. However, these drives can also eventually fail or get lost.

Another method is to use an external portable hard drive. These drives are usually the size of a small book and can easily store hundreds of GBs of data. Plus, they are portable and easy to configure for regular backups.

With today's hi-speed connections, we always recommend the offsite data backup option. This kind of computer backup is no longer an option just for big corporations. Small businesses, home offices, and individuals can now take advantage of backing up their data to a remote data center at affordable rates.

So what are the advantages to subscribing to an offsite data backup service?

Whether you're a small business or home user, all types of data are stored on computers. Financial data, student projects and homework, logos, media files, vacation photos, email, movies, etc. The list goes on and on.

Imagine spilling a drink on your laptop. Imagine opening an email that unsuspectingly had a virus. Imagine an unfamiliar clicking noise coming from your computer, then it suddenly dies.
According to Time Magazine, 1600 laptops are stolen daily in the U.S. Imagine if that was your laptop. Of course, there are also tragic events that can occur such as flooding or fires.

The point is this - offsite data backup is a viable solution for all computer users and is highly recommended. Your data would be securely located offsite, so if a major event were to occur at your location, a copy of your data is located elsewhere. Most offsite data services encrypt your data, so your data would be secure.

Don't put it off. However you decide to backup your data, just do it. It only takes a few minutes to configure once and would definitely be worth your while. You don't want to be quoting one of those statements at the beginning of this post later on.