For my file backups, I use the CrashPlan service and software. In addition to backing up to their servers, it also takes care of my local backup as well. It's a great service and I highly recommend it. Their software is pretty good too. For the most part, just tell it what to back up, where to back it up to and you're done.
I know for a fact that the service works - I had the misfortune of accidentally erasing a file and had to get it from the CrashPlan remote backup. That was also dead easy. Go CrashPlan!
One of the services that they offer is a weekly "backup report" that summarizes backup activity for the account. My report has four entries - remote backup for the main computer, the remote backups for my daughter's laptops, and the local backup for the main computer.
Imagine my surprise when the report showed that there were files that were getting backed up in the local backup, but not the remote backup. So I went and investigated and it turned out that the software was having trouble connecting to the remote site. CrashPlan tech support was fairly prompt in responding to my emails and a few days later we determined that the software had just gotten itself confused and a simple system reboot cured everything.
The lesson to learn here is not that CrashPlan is imperfect - nothing is perfect and nothing ever will be. Rather the lesson is: Do not take your backups for granted. Make sure that the backups are running the way that they are supposed to be. Periodically check to be sure that you can recover your files.
Stuff happens. It isn't always big horrible disasters either, sometimes a simple computer glitch is enough to destroy your data.
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