Backup?

[lsanderson]

Synching Just Became a Cinch
By DAVID POGUE

If you’ve ever lost important computer files, then you already know about the five stages of grieving: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Moving to the Amish Country.

Even so, only a tiny fraction of today’s computer owners have automatic backup systems in place. The obstacles are known as Cost, Technical Setup and Being Kinda Busy.

The mental and technical obstacles get especially hairy if you have more than one computer, like a laptop, a home machine and a PC at the office. And it’s almost hopeless if these machines are of different types — a Mac here, a PC there — because you may not be able to use the same backup software or service for all of them.

Last week, a company called Sharpcast introduced SugarSync, a new automated Internet backup and synchronization service. It claims to solve these problems and many more.

Now, the truth is, I wasn’t particularly interested at first. For one thing, Internet backup services are a dime a dozen — and this one is $500 a year. That’s for the maximum storage, 250 gigabytes. Less expensive plans are available for smaller amounts of data, like $10 a month for 30 gigabytes — still costly, although all plans are half price for the first year if you sign up before April 15. More