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So much of our lives are going digital, from photographs to important documents. But what happens when your computer crashes? Well thanks to high speed internet connections, keeping a backup of your computer files is easier than ever.
We all know we should be doing it. It's like flossing your teeth; nobody really wants to do it and definitely not enough people do it; but you really have to do it.
It's backing up your computer.
"A hard drive is a mechanical device. It has an average lifespan of about three to five years, which most people don't realize. Eventually it's going to fail," said Barb Dybwad, head of Tecca.com.
Computer failure these days means say goodbye to photos, important documents and emails. A new campaign from online backup service Carbonite drives the message home.
Tom Murray of Carbonite said, "We're really excited about the ad. In the real world you never get a warning when your computer crashes and when you lose your files."
Online backup services store your computer files on a remote server to keep them safe.
"If the product is easy to use and works automatically in our case, then you never have to worry about having a gap in the information that you've protected," said Murray.
Barb said, "Carbonite is a great one, there's Mosy, Sugarsync, BackBlaze, iDrive, Box.net, all of them are great to look into".
Protection starts at about five dollars a month, some plans are unlimited, while others charge by how much you're storing.
Even if you're using iCloud, it might not be enough.
"By default you're not actually backing up all of your files (on iCloud), the photostream only does a thousand and after that you're not storing any more," explains Barb.
I personally recommend backing up two ways, online, and with an external hard drive. That way you're always covered no matter what happens. Check out all of the online services mentioned, right here:
http://www.carbonite.com/en/
http://mozy.com/
https://www.sugarsync.com/
http://www.backblaze.com/
http://www.idrive.com/
http://www.box.com/personal/