Are your documents, pictures and music backed up? If your only copy is on your computer's hard drive you could be just one lightning bolt, electrical power surge, or spilled drink from wiping out all your data. If this is your situation, Carbonite may be the answer. I don't often endorse a product, but I feel this one is a really good value. Peace of mind for less than $5 a month is cheap protection. 

"Not me," you say. I have my stuff backed up. Well, how recently did you do the backup? Last week, last month, last summer. ever? Is your backup on CD's, zips and floppies scattered all over your house. My experience is that people think they have things backed up, until it comes time to restore their lost data -- then it's a (usually) devastating reality check.

Then, how about my nightmare story from two summers ago? I knew thunder storms were in the area so I unplugged my machine from both the electricity socket and the cable. A lightning bolt struck in my neighbor's back yard and the static electricity took out everything. (Did you know that if your computer sits on a carpet it's on the biggest conductor of static electricity in your house? I do now!)  I did everything right and still got nailed! Luckily, I had all my data backed up to a second (usb) hard drive and only by some sort of divine intervention it didn't get fried, although it sure could have. Still, I had to send my computer in for repairs and restoring the data was a chore.

If I knew then what I know now I would have had nothing to worry about. Carbonite is a safe, online backup system for all your computer's data (documents, pictures, music) with unlimited capacity. All your data being uploaded or downloaded is totally encrypted. It runs in the background and does not slow your computer down, in fact it only runs its backup when you are not working on your computer -- step away for five minutes and Carbonite uses that "down time" to back up what you're currently working on. If you use a laptop, it backs up your stuff no matter where you happen to be. Better yet, it's off site so even if disaster strikes your house your data is safe. You can even try it for free for 15 days -- with no credit card information required! Then if you subscribe it costs as little as $3.75 per month. (See the prices by clicking here.)

If your computer goes down and gets repaired or you buy an new computer, all you do is tell Carbonite to restore your files and you're back to normal. -- Jim Neff

*Note: Carbonite only works with high-speed access (cable, DSL). If you are on a dial-up connection, I'm sorry to say, your connection is not fast enough for this service.
*If you do sign up through this page I will make a commission, a huge amount that will go into the deck popcorn fund.
*The first backup takes a LONG time, depending on how much data you have. It uploads at about 2.5 gigs per day, so once it starts just leave your computer on. It will back up documents first, so within a very short time those are "safe" before Carbonite begins saving the pictures and music. I heartily recommend going to the Carbonite site and watching the tutorial videos.