Really cheap PC protection -- just like the pros?

Computerworld - It's no longer a question of whether or not to back up your data but, rather, how to do it. Even with the forthcoming demise of the ubiquitous floppy, there are still enough disk, disc and tape possibilities to make your head spin. Of course, there's always that option you probably haven't thought about at all.

Over in the IT sector of computing, off-site backups have been a mainstay for years. The technique literally means what it says: Your data is backed up to a location that might be miles and miles away from where it's normally used. That's a pound of prevention against catastrophic data loss -- not just the potential demise of a hard drive but, instead, the possible destruction of an entire data center by fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane or other disasters of biblical proportions.

If that sounds intriguing, your next question might be whether or not you'll need to build a data center in the basement or broom closet of your small office, home office or small business to take advantage of off-site backups. Thanks to CrashPlan, a product of Code 42 Software Inc. in Minneapolis, even the smallest PC can reach out and back up.

CrashPlan (yes, the name is a bit unnerving) is available in two flavors -- the $19.95 rudimentary version and an upscale $59.95 "Pro" model with a few more bells and whistles -- for Windows PCs, Macs and, in short order we're told, even Linux boxes. Not to worry, there's a free downloadable trial with which you probably want to acquaint yourself. CrashPlan is effective, but it's somewhat eclectic.

The software runs in the background of your PC. Right there, it might occur to you that it may slow things down a tad, depending on the performance level of your system, but the CrashPlan FAQ says it won't because the program is set to run at idle priority -- only when your PC isn't doing anything else. Of course, you'll need to keep your PC running when it's not doing anything instead of powering it down.

You have three possible backup options: Another computer on your network, a friend's computer to which you can connect over the Internet (these first two require you to install a copy of CrashPlan of the destination PC) or the CrashPlan backup server located in a bank vault in Minnesota … where nothing catastrophic ever happens.

Mull those options over. If you're looking for off-site backup, storing valuable data files on another computer at the same location may be effective, but it hardly defines the "off-site" concept or protects you from catastrophe. Your friend's computer, remote as it might be, is an interesting possibility. Your data is encrypted to prevent unwanted intrusion, but you should assure yourself that the friend in question isn't a glazed-eyed slacker with an overclocked PC that crashes every half hour. The idea of backing up your data is to keep it secure and retrievable.