All of us have important data on our PCs, some more important than others. Backing up that data is important, and we at PC Mechanic have pounded home that concept time and time again in past tips, newsletters and on the website. But, many backup methods require you to actually remember to do it. Therein lies the problem.

If you are on a network, and these days an increasing number of us are even in our homes, then you have other options besides recording DVDs and CDs. You can hook up a network storage device to your home network. Basically, this acts as an external hard drive on your network, accessible by all PCs on the network. And being that it resides separately from your actual PC, it provides data redundancy. It can also help you synch data among all PCs on your network, seeing as the data is stored on one central point on the network.

I have been doing some personal research into this for my own office, and I thought I would point out just a few options I have come across:

• Mirra Personal Server. Basically, this is a small stand-alone Linux powered PC that sits on your network and transparently archives data from your PC. It provides secure web access to the system when you are away.
• Buffalo Linkstation. Same concept as Mirra, basically. It also doubles as a print server.
• LinkSys EFG120

Good luck with your own research.