Most of us use flash drives to store our data but what if you lose it somewhere or damage it somehow? Some of us external hard disks but what happens if it suddenly crashes? What if your computer’s hard disk fails? There are alternative solutions for backing up your data online while you are working.
There are several free services that offer online backups solutions. Dropbox (click here to download) is a very popular service which “syncs your files online and across your computers”, providing an initial 2GB of space (that can be increased to 8GB for free if you refer other users). You can pay and get more space if you need it.
When you install Dropbox a directory will be created on your computer. All files stored inside this folder will be automatically synchronized with the server online. You can install Dropbox on many computers or on your smartphones and have all your files synched across your different devices. You can also access your files from the dropbox website.
While editing a certain document in your Dropbox folder it is automatically synced everytime you save it. In addition Dropbox lets you share files and folders easily with people you invite. You can also send people links to specific files within your Dropbox. This makes Dropbox perfect for team projects.
If you delete a file by mistake you can restore it or go back to an older version of that file (Dropbox keeps up to 30 days of history for all the files).
Dropbox replaces emailing file attachments to yourself and other people and using USB drives to move files between computers and using complicated backup software and hardware.
Personally I find Dropbox very useful for backups and use it mostly to share files with colleagues or friends. Do you regularly backup your files? Answer our survey below about your preferred backup method.