Top 2 Computer Backup Options Compared

The top two computer backup options are making local duplicates or uploading files to backup servers. Both of these approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. In this article I’ll show you what the benefits and problems can be with each.

Time was that you simply do a laptop data backup by burning files to a CD or DVD. It is more common now to use external hard drives and synchronization utilities to make backups. These local duplication solutions are still very valid and can prove to be very cost-effective. It also affects boozy overusing the hardware. If you have a large enough external hard drive then you could also do a ghost image of entire computer hard drive.

The problem with these computer backup options is that the PC owner needs to actively invoke the backup process (i.e. boring the CD/running synchronization software). You also need to make sure that backups and original data are not stored so close to each other as they could both be lost in the same incident.

Web-based computer backup options seem to solve some of these issues. These commercial services provide you with a client application that you configure with the folders you wish to upload and how often you want to synchronize. This amount of automation means that you don’t forget to complete a laptop data backup on a scheduled basis. You also have no additional hardware so it is one less thing to carry around when travelling with your laptop. Even if you don’t have your laptop you can use their web-based interfaces to access your data from other machines.

But even these online computer backup options have their flaws. There are data limits so you can only make a partial backup. Moreover the subscription costs can prove to be a lot more expensive than making local duplicates.