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Online File Backup Services
Compare and review services that provide backups of all the files stored on your computer's hard drive including financial documents, emails, digital photos, music and more.


Online File Backup Comparisons

Services: Our Ratings: Bottom Line:
Mozy Home Rating:
 Best overall online backup service
ElephantDrive Rating:
 Very good service with excellent infrastructure and security.
Carbonite Rating:
 Cheapest way to store unlimited data.
BeInSync Rating:
 High fees and relatively low storage limits.
Box.Net Rating:
 Great file access and collaboration options but no automated backups and limited storage.

NextAdvisor Online Backup Blog Headlines

Some new PCs will include built-in online backup services
Online backup programs are becoming so popular, some PC makers will soon begin shipping computers with online backup programs already built in. New Lenovo ThinkPad SL series laptops will include Mozy software, and customers will get 5 GB of storage for free for 90 days. And today, Dell announced that the new Dell Netbook will [...]

Avoid data breaches - encrypt your Gmail!
Google recently created an option for Gmail users to ensure that their email is securely encrypted using SSL. All you have to do to permanently encrypt your email is go to your Gmail settings page and, next to “Browser connection,” select “Always use https.” When viewing your Gmail, check the address bar. If it says [...]

Mozy 10% discount promotional from July 2008
NextAdvisor.com readers can receive a special 10% discount on one or two year subscriptions of Mozy’s online backup service in August. To take advantage of the limited time discount simply click on this link to sign up for Mozy and enter the promotional code AUGUST when prompted during the sign-up process. You can learn more [...]

How to recover from a lost or stolen iPhone
Apple’s iPhone, like any smart phone with the capability to store significant amounts of personal information, can put you at risk for identity theft if it is lost or stolen. Fortunately, there are many precautions you can take to ease the pain of a lost iPhone. If your iPhone has already been lost or [...]

Mozy 10% discount promotion code for July 2008
While we realize July is quickly coming to end, there is still time for NextAdvisor.com visitors to save 10% on Mozy’s one or two year memberships.  Mozy is one of our top rated online backup services and offers low prices, a simple to use interface and unlimited storage. To save 10% on Mozy, simply click on [...]

Lifehacker names Mozy and Carbonite among five best backup tools
Lifehacker recently published a list of the five best Windows backup tools, based on votes from commenters. After sifting through nearly 350 comments, they came up with five popular favorites. Mozy and Carbonite, two of the online backup services we review at NextAdvisor.com, were both included in the top five. Lifehacker also included a poll [...]

USA Today says online backup services a good way to pinch pennies on the web
A USA Today article encouraged readers to look toward the web based software applications as a way to save money during the current economic downturn. One of the highlighted software products was Mozy’s online backup service. Mozy offers 2GB of free online storage and ElephantDrive offers 1GB for free. While most people will run [...]

How to deal with a lost or stolen laptop
Since a recent study drew attention to the startling number of laptops that are lost or stolen at U.S. airports, we thought it would be useful to outline some of the best ways for consumers to deal with laptop loss. Aside from the immediate financial loss and the loss of valuable files, a missing laptop [...]

Lost laptop computers may cost you more than you realize
The recent Ponemon Institute survey, commissioned by Dell, sheds light on just how many laptops are lost or stolen at U.S. airports. At 36 major airports, lost laptops total more than 10,000 a week. When smaller airports are taken into account as well, the total number of lost laptops rises to 637,000 a year. Laptops [...]

Users report bugs on Apple?s backup solution
When Apple launched its Leopard operating system earlier this year one of the most talked about features was the automated backup tool called Time Machine. However, some users are beginning to report problems with the service that prevent them from backing up the important files that are stored on their computer’s hard drive. David Zeiler [...]


Did you know?

Did you know that an estimated 1-in-10 computer hard drives fail each year resulting in the loss of important files such as financial documents, emails, digital photos and music? Even more people, nearly 43% of all computer users, will lose some of their important files because of other computer or hardware problems. Luckily, this is totally preventable with the use of an online file backup service. These services will run automated or manual backups of your computer's hard drive so that if for any reason your files are corrupted or lost they can be recovered as good as new. These services are easy to use, totally secure and will prevent losses in time and money in the event of some sort of file loss.

Read our reviews to learn more about the best online file backup services

Why do I need a file backup service?

It is often said that there are two types of people in the world- those that use a hard drive backup service and those that will. Just like your health and auto insurance, online file backup is something that you are very happy that you have when you need it. Online file backup services store a secure backup of all the important files on your computer's hard drive so that you can retrieve them in case of file loss or corruption. This can be a life saver if your hard drive fails, your computer is stolen or you accidently erase an important file.

View all online file backup services.


How does it work?

Using an online file backup service couldn't be easier. In most cases it is as simple as downloading a piece of software on your computer that will automatically run in the background while you computer is turned on. Every time the software runs it checks your computer's hard drive to determine what files have changed and securely stores copies of those files for you so that they can be retrieved in the case of an unforeseen file loss or hard drive failure.

View our FAQ for more information.