Last summer I wrote two posts about the importance of backing up and a few ways to make it a simpler part of managing your ADR practice: Backing Up: Protect Your Business Data and Carbonite Makes Backups So Very Easy. It’s time for an update.

I continue to prefer online backup programs because they protect your files from fire, flood and other disasters that could destroy backups you’ve got sitting in your office. Good online backup services work in the background automatically, know when you’re working online so they don’t steal bandwidth, and are easy to set up once so that you don’t have to remember to back up. Here are two worth considering:

I’m a fan of Carbonite, which worked seamlessly and as promised on my PC. It encrypts your files and stores them on its protected servers so that you always have an off-site copy of your files available anytime and from any PC. It works in the background so that once you set it up initially, it automatically backs up your files whenever you’re online and have updates. Carbonite offers a free 15-day trial and a 12-month subscription for $49.95 US.

When I bought my Mac, Carbonite didn’t offer a service for Macs…and still doesn’t, though a note on their site says they hope to have a Mac version out in October 2007. You can sign up to be notified when it’s out.

So, I switched to Mozy, which has both a PC version and a beta Mac version. It works in essentially the same way as Carbonite. I’ve now been using the Mac beta Mozy for about 6 months and it’s been as terrific as Carbonite was. Mozy is free for up to 2GB of data (that’s probably plenty unless you’re backing up lots of music or graphics files) and $4.95 US per month for an unlimited number of files.

For either of Carbonite or Mozy you’ll want a broadband connection like DSL or cable; don’t even consider using them if you’re still on dial-up. Anticipate that the first backup can take a couple of days, depending how many files you’re backing up. I just left my computer on and let the work be done as I slept. After the initial backup, only incremental backups are needed as you add new files or edit existing ones.

Are you backing up regularly…at least once a week? If not, I beg you to start. Picture me on my knees, staring up at you, hands clasped.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MakingMediationYourDayJob.Lenski.com.