-- Georges Apple

How often should you backup ? That answer will differ based upon the category of information in your computer. For example, I backup family pictures to a local external hard drive only once a month because I don't take many pictures and if my computer were damaged three weeks after my last backup, losing the most recent month's additions would not be catastrophic. It would be a major head-ache on the other hand, if I were to lose my last three weeks' history of financial information, contact information and emails.

My recommendation. For valuable information that is updated regularly, I use a free, online service called iDrive. I set up a daily automatic backup over the internet (using secure connections to their server) that takes place without disrupting my use of the computer. (The first 2 GB of storage is free and probably will be sufficient for most homes.) No matter what befalls your computer, your data is accessible to you from any computer in the world using a login and password on their website. You may click directly on this iDrive link and click on "2GB free" for free sign-up. You will NOT need your credit card for the free service. For my customers who have signed up for my Complete Cleanup, I will go ahead and install the service for you.