Sunday, November 05, 2006

How to backup my data? - Part 1

My work and home data is in hundreds of different formats: Word documents, photos, outlook files etc. I backup 11.5GB of this type of data on my laptop. I have used an online backup service Connected DataProtector for the past eight years for all the important work and home data. All data at work is stored on one PC which uses this service. This is almost completely hassle free (set it up once and let it run automatically every night) & relatively cheap.

Recently i've upgraded, after much procrastination, from the 10GB limit (Gold $280 pa) to the 20GB limit (Gold+ $535 pa) service. But i dont want to upgrade to the 30GB limit (Platinum $800) which i consider to be too expensive.

But with 20GB backup limit I still cannot backup all 50GB+ of data. Less important ripped music (from my CDs) or movies (ripped from my DVDs) is not backed up. Connected DataProtector service would be too expensive to backup these multimedia files.

I will investigate other cheap and hassle free solutions to backup ALL my data. The criteria will be:-

  • The total cost of backing up 50GB+ work & home data should be <$500 pa
  • the backup should be as hassle free as the Connected DataProtector service.
  • have the ability to easily backup several PC at home and work