Lesson 17 - Backup and Storage Solutions

How often do you backup up your data? Many of you probably never have but you will soon realize how important it is when your computer "BlueScreens" or crashes and you have lost your precious family pictures or tax data that you have painstakenly created! Now we will look at some options available to protect ourselves from this inevitable system crash. Yes, its not the most exciting topic but how often does this happen to us?

Backing up one's files is an important computing activity. Devastating computing fiascos can occur--such as hard drive and OS crashes, and natural disasters, too, such as fires and floods--that can completely obliterate your hard drive along with your precious photos, mp3s, application files and all other digital miscellany that you've collected and stored over the years you've known your PC.

Of course, a popular backup solution is the use of removal media, like portable hard and jump drives. Got a spare USB port? Of course you do! Who doesn't?

The Plug and Play capabilities of today's removable storage devices make them a great solution for quick and easy backups. And burning your data to a DVDR disc is a cheap way to mirror a directory full of important files for archival purposes.

The following backup solutions are a popular choice among computer uses the world over, but they fall short in several important categories. For one, as is the nature of storage, when you run out of storage space on your removable media, you'll need to go to the store and purchase more of it.

Secondly, if there's ever a disaster that'll require you to evacuate your house, you must remember to grab hold of all your backup DVDs and removable storage devices, an activity that usually isn't on top of one's mind during a disastrous event!

Online File Storage overcomes the problems that removable media presents in several obvious ways:

your file backups get transferred to a server, completely separate from your home PC, so if anything should befall your computer, your data backups are at a safe distance; and, should you find that you need more online storage space, purchasing more space can be done rather quickly, and from the comfort of your computer chair! Upgrade your online account; BOOM, instant storage space has just been grafted to your existing account!

You'll won't need to drive to Target to purchase an extra jump drive or a 50-pack of DVDRs for backup purposes again!

The process of backing up online is usually very straightforward and painless. Depending on your Online Backup Service, you'll probably be using a desktop application that connects to their backup servers, or you'll simply connect to your online storage account via your web browser, such as FireFox or IE.

To digress mildly, with the advent of Web 2.0 web services--which make for a richer browsing experience--the idea of controlling your storage account through your web browser is not as barbaric as it may sound; a case in point: Gmail!

Xdrive is a popular online storage service that's extremely easy to use by virtue of the fact that it integrates so well with Windows Explorer. What does this mean exactly? Well, once you've signed up for an Xdrive account--xdrive.com--and downloaded their proprietary desktop application, you'll see a new drive letter in Windows Explorer, which will default to the letter "X".

Dragging and dropping files into this virtual folder will prompt the Xdrive service to automatically upload whatever you may copy or move into it. This smooth integration with Windows Explorer is a far cry easier to deal with than the usual methods of file transfer--FTP, web form uploads and other ubiquitous transfer processes.

The cool thing about Xdrive is its on the house 5 gig account. Basically, you sign up for a 5 gig account, download their desktop software, and you're all set! With 5 gigs of storage at your disposal, you'll have the perfect amount of storage space to start out with. Should you find that you need more space in the future, you can always upgrade to one of Xdrive's pay premium accounts. But, in my personal opinion, 5 gigs is ample enough storage to start out with.

Xdrive's desktop application is an easy-to-use affair with a skin-able GUI--graphical user interface--for those that like a little eye candy with their programs. During the installation process, Xdrive will ask you as to what you want your virtual drive letter to be; opting for the default letter X should suffice.

Once you've fired Xdrive up, navigate to the second tab, aptly named "Xdrive"; here you'll need to select on the Connect button. Xdrive will do a little dance, connecting you to their servers and integrating itself with Windows Explorer. Once a connection has been established, an instance of Windows Explorer will pop up, set to Xdrive's virtual hard drive.

From here it's business as usual. Just like shuttling files back and forth in the normal fashion when using Explorer, you do the same here. Dragging and dropping files to the X drive will push said file to your online account, all in one fell swoop; no hassles or hindrances.

In time you'll soon forget that the "X Drive" inside Explorer is a separate entity at all, as its invisible marriage with Windows Explorer makes for an excellent way to backup all your files online! Of course, you don't even need to use the desktop software to facilitate your transfers, for there's a web service on the Xdrive website that'll let you perform your backups inside of a browser.

This is great when you're away from your home PC and want to browse the contents of your online archive, but I imagine you'll be using Xdrive's desktop application a majority of the time.

Xdrive is a fantastic way to clear up some of the clutter on your hard drive, freeing up precious gigabytes.

With an online storage solution at your fingertips, the dreaded thought of losing your data will no longer be looming in the back of your mind.

If you're in need of an intuitive and quick online backup service, I'd recommend signing up for your 5 gig account at

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Backup Drives and Storage Solutions