Having an up to date backup of important photos, files and other data from your computer at home or office is something everyone should have, how ever very few do. How Come? Well at first I thought it might be because no one knew how or that they should do it. How ever that wasn't the case, the answer seems to be that most people just assume a data loss problem or PC failure won't happen to them, that is until it's to late.

In this article I am going to discuss computer backup storage and backup solutions. We'll look at what media and method to use to store your backup as well as the software to create it.

Save your Money Fancy Features Don't Make it Better

One of the biggest issues with buying anything technological is buying more features then are needed to get a job done. Why does this occur? Most of the time it's because we start doing research about the different features available and then start dreaming about how great it would be if the software could do this or that. The reality is we almost never use those technical features, and they end up being as waste of money.

When selecting a form of computer backup storage keep this simple feature free idea in mind. Most times a USB drive (flash drive) or regular old DVD-R's will get the job done. High tech alternatives such as tape backups and secondary hard drives will just complicate the issue.

Simple Software is the Answer for Easy Backups

Storing the backup you create is the first step, of course before you store it on a piece of media somewhere you need to first create the backup. An easy method of doing this is to just use the standard windows Zip format. This will compress everything, how ever it's more difficult to keep all of your files up to date this way. Software can make this a lot easier on you and hands off.

Easy to use PC applications like Acronis True image make the backup process a lot easier then doing it manually. Programs like this are automatically integrated to store a backup on a USB drive or even transfer it off site via FTP. Using the backup software is as simple as selecting what files and folders you want backed up and the software takes care of the rest until you want to add new files or folders.

The key here is don't get to weighted down in fancy features. All this does is slow you down and often you won't complete your backup because of all the options.

Back it all Up Online

Another alternative for computer backup storage that is becoming very popular is online backup services. This combines the software to make the backup with the storage solution (off site online file storage). The price is right often less then five bucks a month, and the software is about as easy as you can get for making file backups.

If you take one thing away form this article the thing to remember is that you must take action. Not backing up your files today leaves one more day for something to crash and you lose all of your important photos, videos, music and more.

So take the first step today and investigate the best method of computer backup storage for you.