There is in reality two main computer backup options. The first is the old school approach to burning a CD or copying your files to a hard drive (i.e. an external hard disk). The second is using the more modern online backup services. This article takes a look at how each of these compare to each other and what the advantages and disadvantages of each are.

The old school approach for doing a laptop data backup is to burn a CD of your critical files. The advent of high capacity external hard disks means you can now do backups and ghost images of your hard drives to an external disk for safekeeping.

The real advantages of this are that you have a once off cost of buying the hard disk and reuse it for many different purposes. It’s also a very fast option and means you can do backup restorations without the need for Internet connections or other tools. You also have the safety of mind of knowing that all your backup information is not floating around the Internet.

On the downside, these types of local computer backup options (i.e. copying to CD/HDD) have to be manually invoked. The user needs to actively run a backup which means that this task can be easily forgotten and the delays between backups grow larger and larger.

The more modern approach for doing computer backups is to use online servers. These are commercial online services which provide you with a set capacity of space (usually around 2 GB) which can be used for storing files. A client application is usually installed on your computer and once you configure the laptop data backup options (i.e. frequency, backup folders, etc.) the process can be scheduled to run on a regular basis. This proves to be an excellent option for anyone working on the move with their laptop who needs the backup while on the road.

The real downside to web-based computer backup options is that you need an Internet connection to retrieve your backup copies, there are subscription costs which you have to pay for (usually monthly) and there will be data limits on the volume of files you can backup.

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