Consumer-friendly PC backup tools emerge

Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. are also weighing vast remote-storage services that could be free and backed by advertising, though neither company would offer details.

Even before products like that emerge, however, the choices for consumers are mushrooming.

IBM Corp. recently rolled out a $35-per-computer software package that automatically backs up a consumer's files by routing the data to whatever sources happen to be available, including inexpensive "thumb" drives and online storage accounts offered by Internet providers.

For those willing to manually make sure important files are safely stored in more than one place, thumb drives and free services like Google's Gmail offer several gigabytes of space. That would be enough room to protect many users' important documents, though richer media like photos, music and video quickly eat up far more space.

Still more territory is available on CDs and "external" hard disk drives that plug into PCs. Some vendors offer drives with an astonishing 1 terabyte of storage — more than enough room to back up multiple versions of every file on almost any consumer's computer. A terabyte can hold the text of roughly 1 million books.

Some external drives do come with automated "set and forget" backup powers. Even with such products available, however, Peter Radsliff, executive director of consumer marketing for Seagate Technology LLC, notes that plenty of people still don't ensure their stuff is backed up.

"It's the old flossing-your-teeth thing," he said. "We all know we need to do it and it's very important, and yet there are the flossers of the world and the nonflossers of the world."

Of course, if a fire or flood destroys your house, what good is it to have backed up your data on something that was sitting right next to the PC?

That's why Seagate is taking a multipronged approach, selling both hard drives and Web-based data services. Through its recent acquisition of Mirra Inc., Seagate offers a personal server that makes it easy to upload files, share them with others and recover them later if need be. It also plans to roll out a separate online storage and file-sharing service in August.

The file-sharing component is likely to please many users, and set some backup services apart from others. Although Mody raves about Carbonite (he's twice a winner with it, because he put it on his girlfriend's computer right before a machine-wrecking coffee spill) he wishes the service had a way for him to let friends and family access the pictures, videos and music he's uploaded for backup.

Some services already offer such media-sharing possibilities, including iBackup.com from Pro Softnet Corp. and Xdrive, which was bought last year by Time Warner Inc.'s AOL LLC. Both start at $10 a month for 5 gigabytes of storage.

IBackup launched in 1999 and now holds more than 150 terabytes of data for its customers in five locations around the world, spokesman Raghu Kulkarni said.

Recall that 150 terabytes would be roughly equivalent to 150 million books. So it would seem iBackup is no secret. But Kulkarni suggests that amount of data is nothing compared to what would roll in if online backup really became widespread.

"It's still a field that has to get the real attention of the consumers," he said. "Because backup in general is not a very cool thing."

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