The importance of backing up your hard drive - WKRN, Nashville News, Nashville Weather and Sports

It's one of the worst feelings you can have at your desk - turning on your computer only to see the ‘blue screen of death.'

Hard drives crash and we've all heard we should backup, but we don't think about it, until after we lose a hard drive.

There are three options to make sure you never lose a file again.

The most original way is just to copy the files you want to keep on an external hard drive. They are relatively inexpensive, and if you know how to drag-and-drop, it isn't hard to do.

The trouble with this method is you have to remember to do it. If you're backing up a hard drive where you continually store information, you'll need to back it up several times a week.

The next, Clickfree, is a device that makes saving to an external hard drive easier. It's a USB gadget that connects the computer with the hard drive you want to backup, to an external hard drive.

It comes with software that allows you to choose which files and folders you want to save, and automatically starts the backup as often as you like.

Carbonite is the easiest way to backup. It's an online service that costs $60 a year for the basic package. Carbonite continually backs up your primary hard drive in the background, whenever the computer is on.

But will just one of these options be enough?

As hard drives get bigger and our files keep growing, having multiple backups is a good idea. For photos you never want to lose: you can always copy those to DVDs from time to time.

Whichever method you choose, do backup, because at some point, we'll all wish we had.

There isn't an expiration date on hard drives. Some can last for years; others may crash within a few months. Most of the time, there is no warning that a hard drive will crash.