Death and Taxes are Inevitable. Data Loss Doesn't Have To Be. According to an April 2003 article written by Imation, a leading data storage company, a survey of PC owners found only twenty five percent said they frequently backed up their data.

I am as guilty as the next person. A few weeks ago I had a gliche in the Eudora e-mail program I have been using the last ten years on my laptop at home. It wiped out a lot of the e-mails that I have been storing. It could have been worse, as my laptop at work is backed up to our server. However, it got me to thinking how important backup is and so I decided to write this article for the 80% that are like me that do not regularly back up.

So, the first thing I did in writing this new addition to the used laptop blog was to research the best backup software packages. Not surprising I did not find the free Micrsoft backup utility that comes with the Window Operating System. I have been using it irregularly and don't find it particulary endearing.

The December 23, 2004 PC World Article, led me to Argentum Backup 2.1. So, I downloaded their free trial copy and am testing it as I write this article. It got the PC World best buy award and is very inexpensive at $25. My initial impression is that it is very, very easy to use. A critical factor for those 80% that don't backup. I am writing this article as it backs up my precious data and it I hardly notice it is running other than the noise on my external USB hard drive. So, it takes little in the way of system resources. It seems designed for the beginner in that it has templates to backup the Windows registry, the Windows shell settings, outlook folders and even the database of your favorite messenger application, like MSN or AIM. You can either back up manually or automatically, which requires no regular effort. Most people should set up a schedule and allow it to happen without any effort on their part.

Wow! Argentum just finished backing up and I looked on my USBDrive E: and the data appears to be all there. I will continue to use it and give you and update in a few months to provide some longer term feedback.

Check out Backup Sofware Reviews.

Other programs that I found by searching for "backup software" reviews 2004 are Genie Backup Manager Professional 5.0 and Dantz Retrospect. I had used the Danz program a few years ago, but can't remember why I stopped, so will check it out again. This program is of particular interest, since EMC Corporation, a leader in information and storage purchased for $50 million them in October 2004. Another back you might consider is Mozy. The offer a free version that has 2GB of space available or Mozy Plus for $4.95 a month.

As time permits I will update this posting with details about these two programs.