Sept 9

Backing Up Isn't Hard To Do
Sun Review September 9, 2000

It has been said that there are two types of people in this world: those who have lost data, and those who will lose data. If you're one of the former, the value of regularly backing up your files is clear to you. If you're one of the lucky few who haven't lost anything yet, you probably realize it is just a matter of time before floppy diskettes let you down.

Backing up your files means saving a copy of your important files to another storage medium such as floppy discs, ZIP drives, CDs or tape drives. If your hard drive fails or if you accidentally delete a file, you will still have a copy of your important data elsewhere. But let's face it: most of us do not have a regular back-up schedule, or we may lack the funds necessary to purchase another storage medium. For those connected to the Internet, here are some nifty solutions that won't cost you a penny.

Freedrive (www.freedrive.com) gives you 50MB of storage space for free. Freedrive acts as your personal Internet hard drive. You can now back up critical files, projects, papers, photos, budgets, and documents and download them from the Internet from any Internet-ready computer. Freedrive also includes file sharing, which enable you to create a collaborative workspace where you can share documents such as photos, calendars, or large files with family, friends, classmates or clients. You select a folder, type in the e-mail address of people you want to share it with, and FreeDrive will send an e-mail on your behalf granting people access to the desired folder. If you share a computer at work or at home, or you want to have a private place for your files, FreeDrive is a great solution: you get your own private, password-protected place to store your data, accessible from any Internet-capable computer. And FD Wireless lets you access your Freedrive from any wireless PDA (personal digital assistant).

You can also use Freedrive to create photo albums. Upload your photos to the FreeDrive Photo Album, and FreeDrive automatically creates a thumbnail. You can view the thumbnails (smaller versions of your photos) before downloading the full photos, and you can even start a slideshow.

Another great FreeDrive feature is Surf-N-Save, which lets you save files directly to your Freedrive from anywhere on the Internet. Just type in the website address, and the file will automatically be sent to your Surf-N-Save folder. So now when you're downloading, files are sent from the webserver or fileserver (the computer that has the files you want) straight to your Freedrive without slowing you down. If you have a slow Internet connection, this is a great solution.

FreeDrive isn't your only option for Internet storage space. Check out Xdrive (www.xdrive.com) for 25MB of free storage space, and Filemonkey (www.filemonkey.com) for 10MB.

If Internet storage space doesn’t fit your needs, check out other affordable options such as ZIP drives or CD writers. Iomega ZIP drives are up to 20 times faster than regular floppy drives, they're portable and can store either 100MB or 250MB on a single disk. The ZIP-100 drive costs around $150, and the ZIP-250 costs $220/$270 for parallel/USB. Blank ZIP disks are available for $13-$17 each.

Iomega also makes a ZIP-CD recorder ($320) that uses both standard CD-R and CD-RW (rewriteable) discs. CDs are a durable and economical storage medium -they can hold up to 650MB of data and cost only $2-$3 each (or less if you buy in bulk). Most CD-writers range in price from $280 to $500.

Using a free Internet storage space in conjunction with a ZIP drive or CD writer makes a lot of sense for those with slow Internet connection. My father uses his FreeDrive to store his favourite files from the Internet. Instead of downloading these files to his computer on his slower-than-molasses Internet connection, he saves the files onto a ZIP disk in my office (using a high-speed ADSL connection), and then brings home the ZIP disk.