If you have a regular office, chances are someone else makes sure your data is backed up somewhere on a regular basis. When you have a home office, however, that someone is you. Too many home offices go without regular backups. When something scary happens, they rush to make a quick backup, or if they happen to remember once every six months or so, that is it. Of course, this is no way to run a railroad. Whether you work for a company or for yourself, that data on your hard drive is precious and it needs to be taken care of.
It isn't that home
office workers are opposed to backing up their data, it is just that it can be such a hassle. Where the data should be backed up is the first issue. Then there is the matter of how much time it takes, plus making sure all the right files are backed up, and then, there is keeping track of those backups should you ever need them. If that weren't enough, even if the data did manage to get backed up, those backups are usually stored in the same location as the home office. In other words, fires, floods, and earthquakes can mean a total loss of data regardless of how often backups are run.
Fortunately, there are some great options for the home office available online. Basically, you download a program from the backup provider's website and install it. You use that utility to configure and run your backups. You can set it to run at 9:00pm every night, or at 6:00 am on Fridays, whatever makes sense for you. Then, when the time arrives, the utility copies off your data to an online storage facility somewhere far away from your home office. Problem solved.
Of course, a service like this isn't free. Or is it?
Some online backup services actually are free. There is a catch. Generally, you are limited in how much data you can backup for free. But, that doesn't have to be such a bad thing. While it may be ideal to backup your entire system, the reality is that most of the files on your system can be replaced. Operating systems can be re-installed, and applications can be re-setup from their discs. What matters is the data that can't be replaced with another copy. For many home office users, these files may simply be the ones in the "My Documents" directory. Other uses will have more complex needs, but either way, the required backup will be substantially smaller than the total size of the hard drive.
Most free services work under the same basic model. For backups up to 2GB, the service is free. For backups above that amount, you can pay for additional space. Mozy.com is one of the most mature services in this arena. Mozy was bought by EMC last year, so it has "real company" backing. Others include idrive.com and syncplicity.com which also includes the ability to keep files synchronized between multiple computers similar to the free Windows Live service Foldershare. The good thing about these services is that you can use them for free and see how you like them, then if you ever need more space, you know what you are paying for.
If you are going to need more than 2GB there are other pay services as well. Carbonite is big player on the pay for it side of the industry. For $49.95 per year, you can back up as much as you want. Perfect for backing up mission critical applications in addition to your basic data.
If you want to stay on the free path, but need more than 2GB there are two services worth looking into. ADrive.com offers up to 50GB of free storage, but you'll be copying those files manually instead of setting up a backup client. New comer humyo.com offers 30GB, but 25GB must be Photos, Music, or Video files and only 5GB can be other files. However, this might be a good option to look into for photographers!
One last thing to keep in mind, even with DSL or a cable modem, each gigabyte of data will take HOURS to upload, so this is not a good solution for backing up huge databases that change frequently. However, a good backup client will only be uploading new files and files that have changed since your last backup, so only that first backup will take the full amount of time. Just sign up for your backup service and set your backup to go off after you are done with your computer for the day. Let it run overnight, and hopefully you can be back in business in the morning.
It might not be perfect, but anything is better than no backup at all!