How to Choose a Home PC Backup Method

Is your backup data safer online than it is on traditional media storage? Two experts weigh in on the pros and cons of two common backup methods

Factor 3: Cost
The main difference in pricing is whether you want to pay more up front for a storage device and media, or pay a smaller amount on a monthly basis for an online service. If you go the online route, Couture says that some providers base pricing on the amount of data they’re protecting, others base it on the number of machines they’re backing up, and still others base it on the number of versions of each file being backed up.

EVault and Mozy are two of the high-end service providers, says Chen, while IBackup and Carbonite provide services typically geared toward consumers and small office/home office users. Prices vary. IBackup has plans that start at $9.95 per month for 10 gigabytes, and Carbonite advertises a price of $49.95 per year for any size backup. Symantec also has integrated its traditional legacy product, Backup Exec, with an online storage service. A separate online backup service is also available. Prices start at just under $10 per month for 10 gigabytes, with one year of version retention.

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