Most of us are too busy to safeguard data, so why not do it the automated way?

How often should you backup your data? Somebody once said that you should backup and backup until you are blue in the face from backing up and then, you should backup some more just to be on the safe side.

Once upon a time, backups were performed on tape by the friendly system administrator, but today anybody can backup data by storing it on thumb drives or by burning it on a CD or a DVD.

Unfortunately, we don't always find the time to do this. For one reason or the other, we forget, and one day, when we lose our hard disks, we lose critical information and then there is no point in crying over spilt milk, is there?

So, start today! Check out some of these online sites that we have mentioned here and save yourself a lot of headaches when your hard disk finally gives way.

>> mozy.com: With this service, you have to signup, download some software, select the files that you want backed up, and then forget about it. The service uses encryption to secure your data when it is in transit and changed files are only backed up on a block-level incremental basisu2014that is, only the changes and not the entire file is transferred online again. Currently, you get unlimited backup for $4.95 every month.