Regardless of nostalgia or sentimental views on all electronic things, your hard drive is probably full of files you would loathe to lose - from pictures and songs to e-memoirs and expensive software you contemplated purchasing at some point but (one way or another) found it installed and running on your computer for the amazingly low price of, um, committing Internet piracy.
There are few things people can do short of a fresh reformatted start if they accidentally erased their entire drive, downloaded some unfortunate malware they just can't seem to remove, or if God forsook their whole existence and killed the drive.
The best solution, other than giving up technology all together, is to regularly backup data.
There are essentially two options to this. The first one is file-based backup, which stores individual files and data to an external storage device or medium. This is for people who want to keep the files and folders on their drive but not any of the settings or OS-related data.
It is the simplest and easiest option people can choose when backing up data because people are ostensibly leaving out the bulk of the drive (i.e. the operating system and other non-personals). It will save on time and space.
In fact, it doesn't get much easier or more basic than DIY-ing a file-based backup. All anyone really needs is an external storage device like an external hard drive or a medium such as a whole crapload of DVDs or a small trash can of USB drives.
Personally, I'd choose the hard drive because discs have a much shorter lifespan and are much more susceptible to damage, and flash drives can be misplaced or eaten by pets (don't ask). Whatever someone chooses, it's as simple as copying whatever he or she desires onto a backup device from his or her old behemoth.
Done and done? Now store your backup somewhere offsite, like three states away in a nuclear fallout shelter.
What? Too much work? Well, there are automated solutions from online vendors.
There's one in particular I've heard good things about called Carbonite.com. Simply pay $49.95 a year, install the software, and let it run in the background of your Windows machine (read: no Mac or Linux version) checking for file changes and waiting for your computer to go idle to upload to Carbonite's secure and encrypted servers.
That's data backup made easy, unless they go under, in which case you're on your own.
In the image-based backup camp things get slightly less easy, but incredibly more comprehensive and exhaustive. With disk images you get a complete image of a drive, which includes all of a person's files, applications, settings, drivers and whatever else someone could have on his or her computer.
If someone feels like paying for this, then give Acronis True Image or ShadowProtect Desktop for Windows and SuperDuper! for Macs a whirl, but none of these will come cheap. Well, SuperDuper! is only $27.95, but True Image is $49.99 while Desktop comes in at a whopping $79.99 - a small price for peace of mind, right? Freebies include DriveImage XML for Windows, a program definitely not for the wary or inexperienced and Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac.
Little known fact, though, is that both Windows and Mac machines come with their own backup utilities.
Vista imaging is easy but comes at a hefty price of memory. Vista is only capable of complete PC backups, which means every time someone has a backup scheduled his or her entire drive is backed up. Its Automatic Backup option will only backup files and data and does not differentiate changed files from static files. So, once again, space is wasted.
It is free and works like a charm, although neither can be found on Vista Starter. A similar utility can also be found on all XP installs, but Home users will have to dig into their XP CD to find it.
Mac users are laughing right now, basking in the glory of Leopard's Time Machine. All a Mac user has do is choose what he or she wants to back up and where to put it, and he or she is set. Time Machine recognizes files that haven't been changed since the last backup, which saves an incredible amount of memory. Plus, a Mac user gets to watch a sweet swirling nebula suck up all his or her files.
Both Microsoft and Apple support pages have more information on its capabilities. Linux users, however, have the world's largest standing online army full of helpful knowledge and advice as well as Tux. So, they can go do what they want. And, if someone uses Linux, I seriously doubt he or she needs to be told how to do most things computer-related.
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