A Call for Backup

31 Oct 2008

By Rob Pegoraro
Thursday, October 30, 2008; Page D02

What do my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, my colleague Steve, my old editor John and my friend Robert have in common? All saw their computer’s hard drive crash. And none had recently backed up their data.

They could have used any of a variety of backup programs, some free, to copy their files. But those programs, too, have something in common: Most are poorly suited for use by busy people who don’t work on computers for a living.

This problem is worst in Windows, where most backup tools commit the same error. They assume you know where your programs’ data reside on the hard drive — even though Windows normally hides those locations.

(Mac users have significantly …

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