Trial Offer Guide

We’ve all been around the block a time or two by now with this issue. I’m sure you’ve experienced that sinking feeling in your stomach when you boot up the computer only to find your hard drive has died. Luckily, it only happens to you once. Then you understand the importance of having frequent and recent backups. You’ve probably bought a secondary hard drive for your system. Maybe, like me, you religiously create cd /dvd backups just in case of a double drive failure. Yep, you’ve learned your lesson.

Maybe… maybe not. I recently ran into a situation that hadn’t occurred to even me. And I have seen it all!

A small business owner who like us, was doing everything right by backing up his entire system every night, nearly lost his business. Why? Fire. An electrical short nearly burned down his entire home including his home office. Fortunately he and his family were not home and his pets were boarded, so there was no loss of life or love. Unfortunately however, all of his computer equipment was lost, all of the dvds he used as hard backups were melted. It’s a tragedy from which we must learn.

There has to be a way to ensure your backups are current and safe, I thought. But aside from driving to the bank and putting a hard drive or back up dvd into a safe deposit box how do I do it.

Online Backup services are the answer. I already hear you… “But don’t they cost a lot of money?”. Not by comparison to the cost of trying to re-create your business or your personal financial life. And of course, since this is TrialOfferGuide.com, you know I’m going to try them before I commit to anything that costs me money!

First, I came across SugarSync. They have a very generous trial offer. You get 45 days to test the service with no cost or even credit card required. And you know I hate giving out credit card information for a trial offer! I was impressed with the 10 gig they provided for my backup. This is really enough for most of my data files. While I’d like to have more to backup some actual software programs, for my current purposes, this is plenty. After the trial period, you continue the service by paying either $24.95 per year or $2.49 per month. Considering how much I spend on dvd’s because of my backup paranoia this is actually saving me money.

The SugarSync free trial offer is based on their starter program. They have more program options offering up to 250 gig of storage space in the premier backup program. This may be needed for power users or mid sized businesses, but I think the basic backup offer of 30 gig of storage for $49.95 per year is adequate for most home or small business owners who are most likely to need an online backup service.

I have found other online backup services which I will review in future parts of this article as I complete my trials so be sure to stay tuned!