Back Up Your Notebook Already!

As a writer, Im paranoid that story text will be lost when writing on planes or trains, so Ill frequently backup to my 2GB PC Card drive when in transit, though I prefer not to keep the drive in the socket all the time, since it consumes power and gets very hot. A USB storage dongle or CD-RW might be a better solution. But when Im attached to a corporate network, Ill use the corporate email system as a temporary backup device to send myself story drafts every half hour or so (of course I delete them when the storys done). While these methods can help protect fresh data, they still dont protect my other data or my ability to continue working if my main drive locks up.

Yes, its true that many other notebook computer components can fail, including screens, keyboards, power regulation, fans, and even system board logic. If one of these fail while youre traveling – tough luck, but at least your data sits safe on the hard drive. Nothing is worse than losing important data or an entire disk drive. For many people, the data on their drives is worth far more than the actual notebook computer in terms of real value and replacement cost.

Ive been in the computer business for a long time, but up until a few months back, I only backed-up absolutely critical data. But Im a changed user! Ive discovered a mobile backup solution in the CMS ABS Plus that works with me, not against me, in most cases. Plus its very simple to use, reasonably priced, and it provides true disaster recovery.

As far as I know, only CMS product provides rich features and the ability to directly replace your notebook hard drive with a comparably performing, bootable, mirror-image drive in the event of a major failure. These days, our notebooks are often our primary, and only system – so its more important than ever for you to have a good backup strategy.

In the end, any backup is better than no backup at all. So at least do something – the newer USB drives make an ideal choice for key data, for example. But Ive discovered a better way, and I couldnt sleep at night until I shared it with all of you. Its not a brand new solution, but Ive lived with it for a while now, and it works great. Read my review for more details.