Livedrive Backup

Backing up the data on your computer may be a hassle but it’s a necessity.

A hard disk failure can mean the loss of precious documents and photos, which may be impossible to retrieve.

However, performing manual backups is tedious and it's easy to forget. Livedrive Backup solves many of the problems of standard backup methods and is a good alternative to those.

The software monitors folders on your hard disk, such as the My Documents folder, and automatically copies files between the computer and the Livedrive server over the internet, with no limit on how much data can be copied.

Any changes made to the folder are copied on the server, so if you add, edit, or delete files, those changes are automatically backed up.

Users can view and download their files through Livedrive's website and it’s possible to browse through photos and listen to music using tools built into the site. Word documents can be opened and edited directly in the online word processor Zoho.

One of the best things about the web portal is that it lets users download up to 30 previous versions of a file, so even if you have made a change you can recover an old edit.

Depending on the upload speed of your internet connection, it can take a long time to back up large folders. To make the most of Livedrive, you need broadband internet, but it might still take some time depending on the files you want to backup.

On many broadband packages, backing up a folder with 10GB of files will still take days. However, you can continue working on the computer while the software steadily uploads files in the background until the folder on the server matches the one on your hard disk.

Livedrive is less complicated than using network-attached storage, and less prone to failure than backing up using DVDs. Unlike with DVDs and hard disks, your data is stored over the internet so it’s secure even if your house burns down or the computer is stolen.

There are some free alternatives such as Dropbox but these only offer limited storage, and while there is a continuing £4 per month cost for Livedrive Backup, it us worth it for the peace of mind.