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It’s frightening how many people don’t do any computer backup at all. If their computer crashes, they lose it all.

This happened to a friend of mine a while ago. He spent months working on an e-book that he wanted to market, his computer crashed, and the e-book was gone!

Having a “backup and restore” system in place is absolutely crucial if you have files that you really don’t want to lose, like a school project or music or photos of the kids, or an e-book… Who of us don’t have such files?

I am a happy user of a free online backup service that is saving me a lot of trouble! Let me tell you about it…

Why An Online Backup Service?

Having any kind of backup system in place is already a step in the right direction, be it as simple as backing your files up to a CD or DVD, but here is what makes an online backup service great: It is off-site, i.e. not at your house or business!

That means that even if you have a fire at your house or business that destroys everything, your backups will be safe.

My Choice?

While there are a few choices available, I use Dropbox and I really like it because of some special benefits it gives me.

Dropbox is very simple to use and is truly a “set it and forget it” solution. All you have to do is sign up, download and install their free backup software, and move your important files to a special folder that Dropbox creates.

After that, Dropbox handles everything automatically. It copies all your files to your secure Dropbox storage space on the Amazon S3 Cloud. If you change any of your files on your computer, the new version is automatically and immediately copied to your Dropbox storage the moment you save the file.

If your computer crashes and you get a new computer, all you do is install Dropbox’s free backup software on the new computer, enter your account details into the Dropbox software, and it automatically copies your files from your Dropbox online storage space to your new computer. That’s it! Not a file lost!

What’s more is that if you use more than one computer, you can install Dropbox’s free backup software on both computers and have the latest version of your files automatically available at all times on both computers. So the two computers stay in sync all the time. This is another aspect of Dropbox that I find particularly useful.

A further benefit is file sharing. Let’s say you and a friend or colleague are in two different physical locations and you need to collaborate on a project of some kind. If your friend also uses Dropbox, you can share a folder in your Dropbox with your friend. Your friend will then have access to the files and any changes either of you make to the files are automatically available to both.

How Much Does It Cost?

Initially, nothing! When you create a Dropbox account, you get 2 gigabytes of storage for free. As long as your storage needs stay under 2 GB, Dropbox stays FREE.

It is only if you need more space that you need to pay. Currently you can buy an additional 50 GB for $99 per year, or 100 GB for $199 per year.

Online File Safety?

One of my first concerns was whether my files would be safe from prying eyes or other types of hackers in my online Dropbox account (Amazon S3 Cloud). I checked into this and came up with the following:

• All files are stored in a strongly-encrypted format and are completely inaccessible without your account password. Not even Dropbox’s own employees can view your files.
• When files move between your online Dropbox account and your computer, they are encrypted and sent over a secure internet connection.
• Only those people who you specifically share files with, can see those files, and only the shared files too.

This made me feel comfortable that my stuff would be safe.

Computer Platforms?

Another great thing about Dropbox is that the software is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Not many of Dropbox’s competitors can say that!

About a month after I opened my Dropbox account, my desktop computer crashed. I could continue working on my laptop because all my Dropbox files were available there as well, and when I finally got my new desktop, I installed Dropbox and a few minutes later all my files were on my desktop too.

I really like this online backup service and recommend Dropbox to all my friends without any reservations.