Free Online Backup
Online backup services provide the ability to back up either selected, or all, data on your computer to an external server. Backing up data is a process that involves making copies of the data and storing these in a separate location to the original data. This means that if data is lost, such as through a power surge, stolen computer, hard drive failure etc, the data can be recovered from the backup.
Backups are particularly useful if they are at a separate physical location to the original file. Having your data on a laptop, and backing up to a CD and a USB stick isn’t useful if both devices are kept in the laptop bag and the entire thing gets stolen. Online backup services provide an important service by providing a means to back up data externally, and being able to do so as long as you have an internet connection, meaning there is no need to change physical location.
These services range in what is required of the user. Some online backup sites will step you through what you want to backup, selecting what to back up and the process of backing up the files. In some cases the backup will need to be done manually however often you want your data backed up. Other times the site may operate by backing up your data automatically every so many days or weeks. This prevents human error resulting in no backup for the data existing.
Data backup is often not a simple method of just copying the data from one location to another. The date may be extracted and manipulated prior to sending, to optimize the space it takes, or to encrypt it so that others do not have access to the information.
There are different models that can be employed when data is backed up. An unstructured model simply copies the data as is the data itself is probably a collection of important files, a directory of photos or a software directory. A full or system imaging model backs up complete system images at specific points in times. This allows for the full system to be restored in the case of data loss rather than only specific pieces of data being restored.
An incremental model organizes backups between more points in time, backing up data when it is changed rather than backing up everything at a specific time. This reduces that amount of data that needs to be backed up each time, but makes restoration of data more complex. It requires the programming locating the last full backup and then looking at all the changes that have been backed up between then and the point to which the system is to be restored. Finally, continuous protection logs every change across to the backup server; this requires almost constant syncing between the user and the server, but also gives the most complete and easy to use back up.
Free data backup is an online service often connected to online data storage. It allows for sensitive or important data to be backed up off site and allows for users to be confident that they won’t lose important information if they have data loss.