Lab

Online backup

Amazingly, according to research from Harris Interactive last year, 35% of PC users in the UK still don't have any sort of personal backup regime in place. Given the ever-increasing threat of malware, the risk of hardware failure, and the less than perfect stability of Windows and its applications, that isn't just foolish, it's also irresponsible.

There really is no excuse. Even if you or your business don't want to invest time or money in backup hardware, online backup services now provide an inexpensive, highly convenient way to keep your most vital data safe, whatever happens.

In fact, online solutions have several advantages over the standard software/hardware approach. First, there are no initial hardware costs, just a regular monthly or annual subscription. And the services are designed for convenience: decide what you want to back up and how often you want to do it, and the service takes care of it for you. All you need is an internet connection. Some services even offer live protection, meaning any files or folders you've selected are backed up as soon as any changes are made to them.

Best of all, because the services are off-site, your data is safe whatever happens to your computer, home or business. Lost laptop? House fire? Flood? At least your files will still be in one piece, and can be restored within a matter of minutes.

The only major drawbacks are that online backup can be slow - it can take more than 12 hours to transfer a single gigabyte of data over an ADSL connection - and as you usually pay for capacity, this means it isn't suitable for full-scale backups of an entire disk. Nonetheless, don't underestimate what you can store; in most services the initial backup takes a long time, but after that the service only uploads any changes to the stored data, sometimes to the binary bit level.

We've tested eight of the most popular online backup services here, evaluating them for convenience, speed of transfer, the security of your data, and the efficiency of any live protection systems. With services starting from no cost atall, there's no reason not to get protected.