My Gaming Laptop

The two principle data backup solutions worth considering are making local copies [to CD/DVD/external disk] or using online services [to upload computer data to backup server]. In this post, we’ll compare the two approaches to see what positive and negative elements each has.

Using scripts to backup websites has long been a popular approach for safeguarding critical website data. However, improvements in broadband speeds mean that commercial options now exist for the synchronization of a home user’s computer with web based backup servers (e.g. iDrive). These commercial services provide software that is installed on the computer to initially define what data to backup and set a schedule for backing up, which can even be done continuously.

An online data backup solution gives you the ability to access your data from anywhere, using any web based device. You also don’t need to be carrying around a backup system (e.g. external hard drive or CD burner) so this is ideal for laptop users wishing to travel while on the move. The drawbacks to this approach however are that you need to pay a subscription fee for using the service and are limited in the amount of data that can be uploaded, so only partial laptop backups may be possible.

The more traditional approach of making local copies to CD or cloning data to an external hard disk using synchronization applications like SyncToy is still widely used. This approach is only limited by the hard disk capacity or number of blank CDs you have. So you can potentially backup the entire computer. You also don’t have to worry about critical personal data being transmitted out onto the web and the cost of these devices and media can work out a lot cheaper than the online subscriptions.

The one thing you have to consider however is the fact that a local data backup requires manual intervention (to burn a CD/run the synchronization software) so can result in backups been delayed or forgotten about.