When it comes to data and digital media, if you don’t have it in two places, don’t count on having it long. For the most basic of backing up, there is the CD, but they are easily damaged and rendered useless. With their cheap prices today, a better solution is a second hard drive, or a third, or fourth.

A Raid machine is an option, but just be aware that they have been known to go bad and wipe all the hard drives in them.

I prefer to be in charge of the backing up. A nice free little program for PCs is SyncToy. You can manually back up with it whenever you want, or schedule automatic backups with it. There are instructions in the help file for that. You can even backup between different computers on your LAN.

But a catastrophe like a fire could still take all your data from you, so having a copy of your important data off-site is a wise choice.

One option is paid online storage. There is a bandwidth charge which hits you at the beginning when you upload the bulk of your data, and then the cost goes way down. It also takes a while for the original bulk to get uploaded since it trickles to their storage. Ten or more gigs could take days and cost 30 to 40 dollars. But then it would drop down to a couple dollars a month. But then again, with the way things are going in the tech business, who knows how long the company will stay in business.

If you don’t have too much data you want kept online, you could always send it to your g-mail or yahoo-mail account. Last I heard yahoo-mail lets you have 1 gig of storage with a 10mb file size attachment limit, and g-mail has 2 gigs of storage with a 20mb file size attachment limit. You may even want to create a second e-mail account just for storage. And if that one fills up, you can create another account. And since it is for your personal storage, you don’t have to worry about getting a cool or easy to remember account name.

G-mail has an attachment file size limit of 20 mb (20480 kb) so you can’t upload a single file larger than that, or a set of e-mail attachments larger than that. For instance, three attached files of 10 mb each add up to 30 mb and would exceed the total mail package size limit of 20 mb even though individually they are under the size limit.

Here’s how to back-up files using G-mail:
1. Select “Compose Mail”
2. Put an appropriate file name in the subject line that describes the files you will save
3. Click the “Browse” button
4. Find and click on the file you want to back-up on line
5. Click the “Open” button
6. To put more files in this category click the “Attach More Files” button and repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have all the files listed that you want to save under that subject line category (totaling less than 20 mb)
7. Click “Done”
8. Click “Save Draft”

Yahoo mail’s attachment file size limit is 10 mb (10240 kb) for free accounts, so use the same precautions regarding file size limits.

Here’s how to back-up files using Yahoo mail:
1. Click the “New” button
2. Put an appropriate file name in the subject line that describes the files you will save
3. Click the “Attach” button with the little paper clip icon
4. Find and click on the file you want to back-up on line
5. Click the “Open” button
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have all the files listed that you want to save under that subject line category (totaling less than 10 mb)
7. Click “Save Draft”

When an individual mail draft reaches the max size, just save it and start a new draft. And if you reach the capacity of your e-mail account, create a new account. You may choose to create a new web-mail account just for back-up storage that has a strong password. It can be a mix of any of the accepted characters for use in an e-mail name. And when you choose a password reset answer, don’t choose one that can be guessed or researched and found out.  For instance, if you choose the question “Pets name”, put something like “ilikechocolate” as the answer. Probably all of your neighbors know your pet’s name, and could access your account with that info.

When you’re done; in the “Drafts” section of your web mail, you have your saved files categorized for easy access, safe from mishaps and computer failures at your home. Accessible from anywhere there is an internet connection.

NOTICE: Don’t close your web browser until the files have finished uploading, which could take a few minutes.

Another option is an external hard drive that you remove from the premises. You could simply keep it in a bank box, at a friend’s house, your mom’s house, or wherever. Remember: We are talking about a SECOND copy of your data: One in your PC at your house, and one somewhere else on the external hard drive. Periodically you will just retrieve it, copy over your new data, and return it to the off-site location.

If you have a lot of new data that you always need backed up, and if you and a brother or sister at the hall are in the same boat and the two of you wanted to get together on this, here is the easiest way to do it. Buy two external hard drives each. Copy all the data you want to save to both of your hard drives. Keep one hooked up to your PC, using a program like Synctoy to keep a current backup of your important data, and the other at their house. In this case we are talking about THREE copies of your data: One in your PC at your house, a second in the external hard drive connected to your PC at your house, and a third one somewhere else.

Once a week, you bring yours and theirs to the hall, and in the parking lot you swap the set you have for the set they have. You bring theirs backup to your house and put it in the closet until next week, and plug yours back in to your PC to bring it back up to date. Now, both of you have an external hard drive always hooked to your PC keeping your backup current, and a copy no more than a week old in the closet of a friend.

If security is a concern, you could use a program called TrueCrypt. Its’ open source, free, and very secure.