Computer backup system buying guide

You could spend a few hundred dollars on a 2 terabyte drive, but do you really need that much space? A 250GB to 300GB drive might accommodate your needs well into the future. You'll save relatively little by buying less capacity than that. At the minimum, get a drive with at least as much capacity as the one that's inside your computer. Physical size is another consideration. If you need to take your backup with you, you'll want a drive that's small enough to carry around.

Online storage services sound great until you realize how slow they are. After the first full backup, which could take two or more days to complete, things go faster, but if you create a lot of music, video, or image files each day, you should consider a faster solution. An extra internal hard drive would be the fastest solution, but installation requires some technical know-how. A network or external drive is a reasonable alternative.

If you have several computers running on a home network, consider a network drive, which you can share. Installation takes a little more computer knowledge than using an external drive. If your computer is near the router, consider connecting it via Ethernet cable to improve speed. A wired connection is 5 to 50 times faster than a typical wireless connection.

Setting up a backup is relatively easy, but if you're not tech savvy, you might want to choose a simpler solution. Just keep in mind that the handiest options—a thumb drive or optical disc—might require multiple discs or devices for a complete backup. An external hard drive that runs without software installation, or performs a backup with the push of a button, is a good alternative.

Some low-priced drives come with no software or backup software that's short on features and flexibility. Even software bundled with some drives can have limitations, such as the inability to back up onto CDs, DVDs, or networked drives.

Third-party backup software can cost $20 to $60, but could be well worth it, if only for peace of mind. Another option is to use the backup software included with your operating system. Max OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later includes Time Machine, which automatically backs up everything on your hard drive and lets you restore anything from a single file to the entire drive. You can restore the most recent version of a file that has been modified over time. Time Machine's slick interface makes it easy to use.

Windows XP and Vista have built-in backup capability. There's an option to let Windows select the files to back up, or you can select them yourself. The interface is simple, though it might take some effort to learn how to set backup time and frequency.

If your backup hard drive and your computers live side by side, your data is vulnerable to burglary, fire, flood, or other calamities. For irreplaceable content, consider supplementary backup at a second location. See Offsite data storage for some possibilities.

While not as convenient to use as, say, a thumb drive or an optical disc, an external backup is a relatively simple solution. Connecting the drive, usually via USB, and installing and configuring the software takes about a half hour. Most external drives come with backup software, or you can use the backup utility that came with your operating system. Backup typically demands only a few keystrokes and a minute or two just before shutting down, after the initial backup, which can take hours. You can also schedule automatic backups at preset times, such as when your computer is idle.

The drives are easy to set up and backup is relatively quick.

You lose the added protection of an off-site solution.

Flash drives are finally large enough to serve as computer-backup devices. Now, some manufacturers are making it even easier to use these tiny devices for backup by including the software you need to do so right on the device.

Handy is the name of the game. You can back up all of your data and carry it with you wherever you go. But there's a downside to that portability. Small USB flash drives are easy to leave behind, lose, or have stolen; if you drop it, the drive might break. But for a simple, plug-it-in-and-back-up solution, these drives could be just right. Those we tested start backing up with just a click or two and can do continuous backups simply by inserting the drive or pushing a button.

Easy to set up. You can carry your files with you.

Expensive. Easy to leave behind, lose, or have stolen; might break when dropped.

These are similar to external hard drives in form and function, but connect to your router, providing backup and file-sharing access to all the computers on your home network. The drives we tested let you use gaming consoles, media set-top boxes and devices with built-in networking to access pictures, videos, and music stored on the network drive. That comes in handy for playback on a large-screen TV and home-theater system.

Setting up a network drive can be difficult if you're not comfortable with terms like WAP, IP address, MAC address, and workgroup. Consider having someone else set up the drive or look for another solution, such as online backup.

If you have a network of multiple computers, they all can use the drive for backups and file sharing.

Setup requires some networking know-how.

These services store your data on the service provider's drives. You access your data over the Internet. For increased security, they typically store your data at multiple locations. The services generally provide software for file encryption to keep your data secure, and for scheduling automated, incremental backups. Most offer remote file sharing. Because your data isn't on your premises, it's safe from burglary or natural disaster such as fire or flood. And there's nothing to break or lose, you can add or subtract storage space as needed (sometimes at extra cost), and your backups are available anywhere over the Internet. But you must be comfortable trusting your data to a third party.

Initial online backups are excruciatingly slow. In our tests it took more than 24 hours to upload 9GB of test data. With 25GB of data, an initial backup can take up to eight days. Consider leaving your computer powered on for the entire initial backup. Subsequent backups are much quicker, because they only involve files that have changed. Factors that affect backup speed include file type (for example, photos typically take longer than text documents), computer, connection speed, your computer's other activities during the backup, and network traffic on your end and at the online service.

If you have lots of digital images, consider a photo-sharing service, which lets people you invite view and print photos. Uploading will still be slow, though. And be aware that some sites, including Kodak Gallery and HP Snapfish, now delete your images unless you make a purchase within a certain timeframe. One service that has promised not to do this is Shutterfly. Make sure you read the site's terms and conditions before you sign on.

Your data is safe from burglary and natural disasters, and you can access it from any Internet connection. And there's no hardware to lose or break.

Backups can be glacially slow, and you'll be trusting your data to strangers. Photo-sharing sites might delete your images if you don't make purchases.

The easier a backup is to perform, the more likely you are to actually do it. Most drives and online services incorporate features aimed at convenience, but some do a better job than others. The ones that don't require any software installation are the simplest; just plug them in and after a few clicks, the backup begins.

If you want to use your external drive to back up more than one computer, make that sure it allows for that. Some software that comes with external drives works for only one computer and some require you to reformat the drive if you move between a Mac and a PC, which means you'd lose your data.

Some external drives, such as the Maxtor OneTouch, let you create an exact duplicate of everything on your hard drive. (As opposed to others, which save time and space by backing up only critical data files). That could be a lifesaver in the event that your primary hard drive crashes, because it saves an exact copy of your hard drive, including application software.

Most network drives enable you to send movies, photos, and music to your A/V and gaming devices. Two standards—UPnP and DLNA—allow media devices such as connected TVs, DVRs, cameras, camcorders, routers, electronic picture frames, set-top boxes, computers, external hard drives, gaming systems, and MP3 players to connect to one another for browsing, editing, copying, deleting, and most important, playing files among them all. As with all standards, when there's more than one, you must make sure that your devices adhere to the same standard. Otherwise, they won't necessarily interoperate. To be sure that the photos or videos on your network drive are viewable on your networked TV, make sure both devices support the same standard.

The ability to view your files from any computer over an Internet connection can be useful when traveling. Most network drives have this ability, and it's a given with online services. Keep in mind that you'll need the associated application on the computer you're using to open the files, which could be a problem in an Internet cafe.

Backing up gives you another copy of your data; in some cases you can take it with you. Some external hard drives are the same type used in laptop computers. They're small enough to carry in a handbag, backpack, or briefcase, and low-powered enough that they run on the power provided by a typical USB port on your computer. Even easier are the USB flash drives that fit into any pocket.

External and network drives may come with one or more connections. Ethernet has the edge in speed as long the computer is wired to a Gigabit router. The eSATA is the next fastest, edging out Firewire 800. Firewire 400 and USB perform similarly and are the slowest of all the listed connections.

Universal Serial Bus is the most common. All current computers have at least one.

Sometimes called IEEE 1394 or iLink. These are more prevalent on Macs than PCs, so check to see whether your computer has one.

External SATA is simply the internal drive connection that is accessible externally. This is the newest type of connection and is still rare on computers, so before buying this type of backup drive, check to see whether your computer has this type of connection.

This is the common connection for networked drives. You connect it to your router, not your computer. 

This means more than just having all your files backed up. If your hard drive were to fail and need replacing, you'd have a lot to do to get your computer up and running again. A hard drive disaster recovery tool typically includes a boot disk (since your new drive doesn't have an operating system installed on it) and the ability to backup all the contents of your drive including the operating system, applications, files, settings, and customizations.

With this, you can set backups to begin on different date and time intervals with the backup always running. If you change any file by editing, or create a new file, it's immediately backed up. Also, successive versions of a file are kept (usually with some limit as to how many old versions), so that you can recover a version from a previous time, such as before you accidentally deleted some critical data.

An open file (also called a locked file) is one that you currently have open on your computer. It is "locked" by the application that is accessing it. Some backup programs can back up such files without asking you to close it; some simply skip it and don't back it up. To back up such a file, a backup program makes a "shadow copy" (a read-only copy of an open file) while you're accessing the original.

Clickfree Portable Backup Drive-HD701 (120GB), $90
Also available: In a similarly small form-factor in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities, and full-size in 500GB and 1TB capacities.

Like most portable hard drives, the Clickfree is smaller than most regular drives (it measures about 4-1/2 by 3 inches) and is simple to use.

There's no software to install (it all remains on the Clickfree drive), you can back up as many computers as you have space for, and it works with all current versions of Windows. Once you plug it into a USB port, you're two clicks away and a few seconds from starting the backup. Using the default settings, which back up only data files, Clickfree backed up about 11GB in 15 minutes.

Options let you add file types, specific files and folders, and Windows operating system files. The drawbacks are you that must reformat the drive if you switch between a Mac and PC, erasing all previous backups. Mac users need OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later running an Intel processor. Finally, the extra power plug on the USB cable is too short if your notebook's USB sockets are on opposite sides.

Our take
Fine choice for very simple data backup.

With just a few more clicks than Clickfree, the Rebit, another portable drive, backs up your entire drive, operating system, applications and all—and, like the Clickfree, it does not install its software.

The full-backup capability is useful in the event of a disaster, but you can't choose what to back up and you can't schedule backups. The tool is always running and backing up, saving multiple versions of your drive's contents. The drive took about an hour for our 50GB Vista system.

Because of the multiple versions, you'll need a destination drive that's large enough. When space gets tight, Rebit deletes the oldest copies of multiple versions first. Rebit runs only on 32-bit, NTFS-formatted Windows systems. Windows XP can be either FAT32 or NTFS and most new PCs ship with 64-bit Vista. What's more, it works on only one computer. A minor design flaw puts the drive lights in the back of the unit.

Our take
Can back up the entire contents of one computer.

These require a little more work to get going. After you plug the drive into your USB port for the first time, you need to click in a window, which opens automatically, in order to install backup software onto the computer. Installation went smoothly, though.

You can back up the entire drive or just selected files and folders, and you can synchronize folders between the drive and two or more computers. There's no support for 64-bit Windows. Seagate Manager doesn't let you simply password protect your files (you must encrypt if you password protect), and there's no drive imaging feature. Seagate makes up for that by allowing e-mail backups, but to do so, you must edit the default setting to point to the folder that holds your e-mail files. That could be tricky because e-mail files can be hard to find.

The Mac version is physically larger because it adds a Firewire port, and software is not included. Unless you're running Apple OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which includes the simple and complete Time Machine backup utility, you'll need some other software solution. A useful and convenient dock is included, but it requires a FireWire 800 port. A USB version of the dock is a $20 option with the PC model, but it is sometimes offered free along with free ground shipping.

The USB cable included with both units is a short 17 inches. Both include a five-year warranty.

Our take
Fine values in fairly simple back-up drives.

We also tested a drive from Maxtor, which shares ownership with Seagate. It comes bundled with Maxtor Manager software that lets you password protect or password protect and encrypt all your data, and a feature called SafetyDrill lets you create a complete image of your hard drive for restoration in the event of a hard-drive failure.

A light on the front of the drive doubles as a one-touch back-up button; just push the button and backup starts automatically. The drive runs on PCs and Macs and has a five-year warranty.

But a shortcoming to the Maxtor is the software's inability to back up e-mail. And like the Seagate for PCs, it lacks support for 64-bit versions of Windows XP or Vista. It's also a little less stylish than the PC Seagate, which comes in a variety of colors.

Our take
Fine value in fairly simple back-up drive.

SanDisk Ultra Backup (32GB), $167
Also available: 8GB, 16GB, and 64GB capacities.

The SanDisk Ultra Backup is extremely simple to use. There's no software to install, and the initial install starts a backup after a couple of clicks. To run subsequent backups, all you have to do is push a button on the drive. With the default settings, you can back up all the common data and multimedia files; but backing up e-mail files requires changing advanced settings. SanDisk backed up about 11GB in 35 minutes, which is slower than a typical hard drive. The backup is password encrypted, so use a hard-to-crack password. Backups are not compressed. The drive is expensive when you factor in dollars per GB.

The SanDisk Ultra Backup is also a U3 smart drive, which means that it includes a set of small-footprint Windows applications for word processing and other tasks. The U3 apps are installed on a separate partition, so you'll see two drives when you plug the SanDisk Ultra Backup drive in. These programs can launch and run on any Windows computer (no Mac or Linux). Freeware, pay, or trial ware, the applications can do most of what Windows applications can do. You can launch them on any computer, do what you need to do, and when you're finished there is no trail that shows you were on the computer. It's a useful feature when you need to use a public or another person's computer.

Our take
Extremely simple to use.

Like the SanDisk, the Back in a Flash is simple to use with no software to install on your computer. Automatic backup of your data files starts with a single click. We used the default settings on a Windows Vista computer and were able to back up all the data and multimedia files, with some exceptions. E-mail is not backed up, and you can't set the software to back it up. On the test system two 300MB video files were not backed up even though the manufacturer's web site says this should only happen on the smaller-capacity Back in a Flash drives. Back in a Flash backed up about 13GB, and compressed those files down to about 9GB on the Flash drive. The backup took 70 minutes, which was the slowest of all our drives, hard drive or flash drive. Back in a Flash is also the most expensive drive in dollars per GB.

Along with backup, the Back in a Flash will "resuscitate" your computer. Resuscitate means that you can boot a PC whose operating system has crashed but can still start up and display video on the monitor. You boot from the USB flash drive, which launches a Linux operating system that provides access to all your backed-up files. There is software loaded in the Linux operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, and Power Point. It also has a Web browser, an e-mail program, a music and movie player, disk burner, and instant messaging. If your files are able to be opened by the drive's software, you can complete your work and send e-mails of your files, even though your computer is not fully functional.

Our take
Extremely simple to use.

Western Digital My Book World Edition (1TB) WDH1NC1000N $299
Also available: 2TB version.

The Western Digital My Book World Edition claims a simpler setup than other networks drives, and we did find it the simplest of those we tested. You plug it in to your router, power it up and you can see the drive and the default folder in place on the drive. But you still need to insert a CD and install the backup software.

Western digital also claims that the drive runs cooler and consumes 33 percent less power than competing network drives, and our tests bore that out. Despite the absence of a fan, the drive never got hot, and the fan's absence keeps things quiet.

Like other network drives, the My Book World Edition has a USB 2.0 connection for easy storage expansion. Its remote file access goes a step further through its MioNet service. The bundled version provides remote access to the drive, while MioNet Premium ($7.99 a month or $79.99 a year) adds remote access to your desktop and all its apps (just remember to leave your computer on), along with features such as online meetings and Webcam access and sharing. The drive supports UPnP and DLNA media streaming standards for compatibility with more devices. The included WD Anywhere Backup is simple and defaults to a one-click backup. It finds and backs up all your data (music, photo, video, office application, finance, and e-mail files), but because it runs a "verify" on every file, the process is slow. Files are automatically and continuously backed up every time you save them to your primary drive.

Our take
The simplest to use.

This drive lets you share all the files on your home's computers, including multimedia files through devices that support UPnP and iTunes Server. Like most network drives, it supports Gigabit Ethernet, so if your computers are hard wired to your router and your router has Gigabit Ethernet ports you'll enjoy faster speeds. A USB port lets you attach additional external drives for extra space. And you can set up a Web page for anywhere access to the drive's files. The LaCie 1-Click backup software didn't come with the drive, but it's a free download from the company's Web site. The simplistic app's default setting backs up My Documents in Windows XP and Documents in Vista, which is OK for XP, but Vista's Pictures, Music and Videos folders are not in the Documents folder. To include these in your backup you'll have to change the default setting.

Our take
A typical network drive for complexity of set up and use.

Like other network drives, the Central Axis offers Gigabit Ethernet, a USB port for adding a drive, support for streaming media through UPnP-compliant devices, and remote file access. But it also lets you attach a printer to its USB port. This means you can share the printer without having to leave the primary computer on. But the port will then be unavailable for an additional drive. The included software is simple, but not as easy as plug-in and auto backup. You can back up everything in your user folder so you get pictures, videos, music, e-mail, and documents or you can modify the settings to get specific folders and files and change the time of the backup. But there is no continuous file backup and novice users may find setup to be a bit long and complicated.

Our take
The most complex to set up and use.

Carbonite Online Backup Unlimited $54.95 (one year)
Also available: $99.95, two years; $129.95, three years.

Named after the fictional compound the "Star Wars" character Han Solo is frozen into, Carbonite provides a simple backup tool and unlimited storage. A wizard guides you through setup, advising you that home high-speed connections typically back up 2-3GB a day. Yes, online backups are slow, but do the math for a better idea of how long your backup will take, and take heart that incremental backups won't take as long. When the initial backup is completed, you'll see a Carbonite lock icon in your system tray and little green dots on the backed-up files (they're yellow if backup is pending). You can disable the dots if you like. Carbonite continuously backs up files you change and can back up locked and open files. It offers remote access to your backed up files, runs on Mac OS X 10.4 or newer (Intel processors only), and maintains previous versions of files. The company also offers instant online chat support. On the downside, there are no predefined backup sets such as photos, videos, and e-mail. And despite the unlimited backup capacity, Carbonite allows only one computer per license.

Our take
One of the best choices.

Less expensive than Carbonite for two computers, this service has lots of useful features and its interface is easy to use, though the default setting excludes e-mail. The free, 2GB option is useful for light computer uses or for supplementary backup of your most important files. Mozy can back up open and locked files, it continuously backs up files, it keeps older versions of files, and offers remote access to backed-up files. The service supports all current versions of Windows and Mac OS X 10.4 or newer. Setup tests your connection's upload speed and estimates how much data you can back up in 24 hours. It gave us a fairly wide range—6.7GB to 12.6 GB—but our results fell close to the middle at 9GB. When restoring large amounts of data, Mozy will overnight your files on DVDs via FedEx. But the charges are steep. Mozy adds a $29.95 processing fee plus 50 cents per gigabyte to the FedEx charge, so a 100GB restore will cost about $120 by our calculations. Mozy allows only one computer per license.

Our take
One of the best choices.

iDrive is a powerful, feature-rich service that gives most users the features they need. The 150GB of space might seem skimpy compared with competitors' unlimited space, but most users will find this sufficient. iDrive supports PCs (Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, XP, and Vista) and Macs (OS X 10.4 or later and a 500MHz G3 or better processor), can back up open and locked files, continuously backs up files, keeps older versions of files, and provides remote file access. You have two interface choices. iDrive Backup Classic resembles a program, with a toolbar at top, a file explorer in the center, and status and settings at the bottom. iDrive Explorer provides a "virtual drive" view, with drag-and-drop for backup and restore. To use iDrive Explorer, download iDrive Backup Classic and then the iDrive Explorer Plug-in. The default setting does not back up e-mail, but adding it requires only a couple of clicks. iDrive allows only one computer per license.

Our take
Worth considering, if you don't need unlimited backup.

At $49.99 for 25GB, Norton Online Backup pales in value in comparison with the unlimited storage of its competitors. Though Norton does let you back up five computers, with that many computers you're likely to need one of the extra-cost upgrades to more storage space. Norton offers remote access to backed-up files and a call-back service to eliminate hold time for tech support, but that's it for the pluses. The service doesn't support backing up open or locked files and doesn't provide continuous backup—a key reason to choose an online service. Upon initial install, the default backup excludes e-mail, music, and video files. Including those files requires simply checking a box, but the files should be part of the default backup.

Our take
Pricey and lacks continuous backup.