Backup your files, always, back it up on an external hard drive and upload it online. Few months back I use to have everybody in our office backup their files on my partitioned hard drive. Most of our files are PDF, MS office files and pictures. They didn’t really take much space on my hard drive and didn’t think about it till the time my PC crashed. By then I made sure that all files are backed up to a separate drive other than what’s in my computer and in addition to that, we have a mirror drive that is uploaded on our web server.
The process is simple, all you need is an external hard drive, FTP client, and a web server. First I purchased a external HD from Newegg.com, share the hard drive as a network drive. 2nd step is to make sure you have enough space for your web server. I use HostGator’s unlimited storage space and data transfer for our websites. To complete this cheap solution for a backup system I went ahead and reseach for a FTP client that do file synchronization. The search was easy, Google’d the keyword “FTP” and the top result is the Smart FTP solutions! It is the perfect FTP client software that was looking for, it has the file and folder sychronization.
How simple this backup system work?
- Files are saved to the network drive (external hard drive).
- FTP client is setup to schedule an upload.
- Files are uploaded and sync’ed to the web server on the scheduled date.
Once all is setup, the only thing you need to remember is to save your files to the network drive.
How much the cost?
- $80 for a 700GB external hard drive. (Smaller hard drives are cheaper)
- $12 per month for HostGator unlimited web hosting. (Web hosting is just not for websites, you can use it as your virtual hard drive too)
- $49.95 for SmartFTP software business license. (One time Fee)
Grand total for this nifty project is about $130.00 for its software and hardware. Add $12 per month for its web space of your virtual hard drive. Now is it worthy? Of course, it’s an investment to protect your hard worked files and the years you spent on compiling your data. When the time comes and something happens, you will be happy that you invested to this. So don’t forget to save or backup locally and online!
Nashville And Surrounding Areas
Need help with this project? Contact me and I will be glad to help you.
