Backup Software

Computers have become indispensable tools, devices in our lives. We work on computers, socialize on computers and store files on them. Our personal computer is full of information, all kinds of information - sometimes irrelevant and obsolete, but sometimes very important and irreplaceable. Let's imagine that you have all the photos that you have taken ever since the digital camera was invented stored on your hard drive, together with all kinds of unnecessary information that you neglected to delete. But one day your computer gets his revenge on you and breaks down and you lose everything. I compare it with amnesia, because it's like losing all your memories when you lose the first photos of your son, your daughter's first tooth or step or the happy days of your honeymoon. It's heartbreaking. But in this case the loss is only emotional. There are though some cases, like a small family business, where losing data means disaster. Only when something like that happens to you (ok, maybe not that bad, but you lose some files), you learn a valuable lesson: you should always back up your files if you want to have them. Accidents and disasters happen all the time and it's better to think of it before the unhappy event.

First people stored information on floppy disks when they wanted to back it up. But back then floppy disks were quite expensive and has limited storage space. So the first backup software was used to split the information in order to put it on several floppy disks. Then, computer science evolved rapidly and data backup was made on CDs, DVDs and even hard drives, because their prices diminished a lot and their storage space increased considerably. Now the backup software was used to compress data in order to fill less space. Nowadays there are a lot of kinds of backup software and your data may be stored online, offline or on remote servers.

But before choosing the best backup software for you, you should consider a few things: if you have only little data to backup, use another hard drive. Then choose your software that is compatible with you; there is software designed for beginners, easy to run and for less complicated operations and there are software packages for professionals, that contain special features, encryption codes and so on. Always try to get ease to use backup software that gives you clear instructions and the control panel is intuitive and convenient and offers you future automated backups. There are plenty of applications that offer you different features; all you have to do is be informed and find the one that suits you best.

Here are some examples of recommended software for an efficient backup for your computer:

- Genie Backup Manager - it's very fast and has all the possible features to backup Windows registry, Favorites, Outlook data and other system files . The latest version even has a disaster recovery option which allows an unbootable PC to be restored from a backup copy of the operating system. The only problem is that it might be too sophisticated for beginners.

- NTI Backup Now - has one of the best interface designs. Still, the lack of encryption can be a disadvantage for some users.

- NovaStor Nova Backup - very good backup software with many extra features such as virus scanner. It can create an image file of your boot desk drive.

- Handy Backup - is very easy to use and very simple and this thing will be liked by many users.

If you have some valuable data on your email, you can get some free online backup software. For example Back2Zip now uses Amazon S3 to offer you unlimited online storage. Its storage service is safe and secure and you have the possibility to recover your data online, without much trouble.

- GFI Backup Home Edition 2009 - There are four main menus in the interface which contain options for creating backups, viewing previously created backups, file restoration and synchronization jobs. It is free now, but it does a lot more than just copying data from one place to another or providing small options like placing the data on a removable drive. Its options include ZIP compression, password protection and even AES encryption for more security.There is an option available to receive email notifications about the success of the operation or the problems encountered.

I hope I taught you an important lesson: keep your valuable things safe, no matter if they are jewels, paintings, rare books or photos, files, emails and other computer related stuff. Think about it: when you use a backup software it's like putting all your assets and priceless things in a vault. You know where they are and that they are safe, even if you can have access to them any time you want. From time to time you can even add other valuable things in your vault and secure them all again.