OLIVERbackupHOME

Here’s the scoop. Everyone should be backing up their computer data regularly. It’s simply foolish not to. I was foolish for a very long time, but no more! My personal backup strategy is as follows: weekly backup to an external firewire drive; monthly backups of digital photos and movies to DVD (this in addition to the weekly external firewire backups); and daily backups to a GMail account. What, you say? Backup to GMail? Correct, I backup to a GMail account with a little application called “gDisk.” This excellent little application allows me to upload specific files to the GMail account of my choosing. Once the files are uploaded, I can access them anywhere I can access GMail.

This is a fantastic way to build redundancy into a backup system. I created a GMail account solely for the purpose of backing up data with gDisk. Then, after launching gDisk, I created categories (i.e., Money, Work, etc.) in the form of “Labels” to reflect the type of information I’m uploading. To use gDisk, simply select one of the labels you’ve created and drag-and-drop the file into the gDisk window. The file uploads to the GMail account labeled with the relevant label and you now have access to that file from within GMail no matter where you are.

Personally, I don’t use gDisk to back up large amounts of data. The upload speeds are comparatively slow and GMail places transfer limits on maximum file sizes (files can be no larger than 10MB). Also, gDisk currently doesn’t allow uploading of directories (i.e., a folder containing multiple files). To get around the inability to upload directories, simply archive the folder first as a .zip or a .dmg and then upload the archived file. Regardless of these minor limitations, gDisk is very slick at what it does. I’d recommend getting yourself a copy ASAP . . . then, to show your gratitude, send a donation to the developer.