Online backup solutions prevent awkward conversations

It used to be that a fire or natural disaster was the only thing that could wipe out an entire lifetime of photographs, but now that they are stored on hard drives, a butterfly flapping its wings in China can wipe out a lifetime of digital pictures.

There are plenty of ways to backup your important files and photos; Cds, DVDs, thumb drives and external hard drives. Unfortunately, unless you're running Time Machine on a Mac or have the discipline and know-how of a systems administrator following through after the first backup is about as likely as magical fairies backing up your data for you.

I know, because even my best-laid plans and reminders failed to save thousands of my wife's pictures that bit the dust when her hard drive failed so spectacularly that not even DriveSavers could save it. Just last week I was asked to help recover every baby picture a couple had taken, which if they had been backed up online, would have prevented an awkward; "No you're not adopted!" conversation later in life.

After restoring what backups we did have for my wife's pictures we decided to move to a backup process that doesn't require me to do anything -- Mozy. Mozy is one of several handy online backup solutions but it is the only one I am constantly recommended by the non tech savvy friends I know.