Dell Datasafe Online: Backup your files

As a gamer, for me the #1 rule of gaming is "Always Save Your Game". Rule #2 is "Save as often as you can!". Hahaha! But seriously, one of most painful thing that can happen to you and your computer is for the computer to crash without you having any backup. Tsk tsk.. Your files in the computer are not covered by any insurance nor is it covered by your regular Hardware Warranty. This article from PC911 explains it better:

Backing up data - why you need to do it
This is one of the most important, yet also one of the most neglected areas of computing. Backing up your data should be at the top of your computer maintenance list, right next to Virus Protection. Without data backup or virus protection, you are running the risk of losing your data. And it will happen, don't think that you don't have to worry about it.

Why should you back up?
Data loss can happen in many ways. One of the most common causes is physical failure of the media the data is stored on. You probably have everything saved on your PCs hard drive. That hard drive will not live forever. To quote a friend of mine, "there are only two types of hard drives - the ones that have failed and the ones that will fail." Yes, normally hard drives will live for years without incident. But eventually they will die. It might happen gradually, by more and more bad clusters accumulating until most of the drive is unusable. Or it might happen suddenly, the hard drive just dies without warning.

Another bad storage media are floppy disks. They are good for temporary storage and maybe transporting information, but not for permanent data storage. I've lost count of how many floppies I've tossed because they were bad. And I have talked to countless people who saved valuable data to a floppy only to find out when they needed to access it that the floppy was bad and the data inaccessible.

Another possible cause for data loss is power failure or spikes. It can result in loss of the document you are currently working on because you did not save it before the power failed and your PC shut down, or in loss of your entire hard drive because a power surge fried your motherboard and destroyed the file allocation table of your hard drive.

Also worth mentioning is data loss through virus attacks. There are plenty of nasty computer viruses out there that will delete files on an infected machine. That's why Virus Protection is just as important.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/backup1.html

What is DataSafe Online?

Dell DataSafe Online helps protect your music, photos and other important files by placing backup copies on a secure storage site using your internet connection.

You can restore your data with Dell DataSafe Online if you lose your original files as a result of Virus attack, Accidental file deletion, Hardware failure, Natural Disaster, Fire, Theft, Etc.

What's great about DELL DATASAFE ONLINE is that you can trust DELL since it's a big company, and you'll know who to go after if important files in your backup account gets leaked. But there's been no incident like that as far as I know.

Another thing I like about it is that right now you get a FREE 1 year trial of 2GB storage space!

But as for myself I'd rather save my stuff in an EXTERNAL HDD, or a THUMB DRIVE. Atleast knowing about DELL DATASAFE ONLINE gives us more options to secure those files that are important to us.