Particularly if you store data on your laptop, you need to backup your data regularly. Imagine the pickle you would be in if your laptop was stolen and all your data would go with the stolen laptop too. There is a way you can regularly backup online, and that is by using a backup service.

There are five backup services that are competitively matched and that includes: Mozy, Carbonite, xDrive, SOS Backup and iBackup.

You will find that xDrive is well managed as it is a service from AOL, but the most competitive as far as services are concerned is Mozy. I would suggest that Mozy unlimited (for about US$4.95 a month) is a very good deal. Mozy however only works with Windows Vista, XP, 2000 or Mac OS X 10.4.

For Linux you will find backup services at FilesAnywhere, and FlipDrive. The cost will be around US$3.95 or US$4.95.