I don't remember how I found Leo Laporte, but I've become addicted to his podcasts and radio shows about all things Tech.   He has audio and video podcasts about Windows, Macs,  Home Audio/Video and many other topics.

One thing that he always says is that if you only have one copy of an important document or file, then you don't really have a backup.  He recommends two or more back up copies of a file. I've come to believe he is right.  I've seen more than one person who has lost their entire company's records when their computer crashed.  I've even lost all the pictures that I had of my son when he was a baby when I reformatted my hard drive.

Back in the good old days, we had to back up our computers to floppy disks, which can prove to be unreliable even after one use.  So, to back up all of my pictures, I'd need many hundreds of floppy disks.  Even then,  I would not be guaranteed that the copy would actually work though. 

Today, floppy disks have gone the way of the Ford Pinto and are not used any more.  Instead, we have external hard drives and remote back up services.

One service that my company offers is the Kinex Remote Backup service that automatically backs up your emails, documents and any other files to an encrypted off-site server.  This service is great because you can go back and restore older versions of files that were changed or deleted.  And, this service allows you to use the SAME account on multiple computers.

Another option is the service by Carbonite.  This differs from the Kinex Remote Backup service in that you do not really have control over the which version you restore from from a backup. You'll always get back the one most recently backed-up to the Carbonite server.  Also,  you'll need a different account for each computer that you plan to back up.

Both of these services require a broadband connection such as DSL, Fixed Wireless or cable. A dial-up connection is not recommended, and is probably not supported.

Or,  if you'd prefer to save money and do this yourself, a simple USB Flash Drive should work just fine.  These drives can be purchased for less than $20  and combined with a free Microsoft program called SyncToy, you can back up your important files and keep them with you.

 Depending on your needs,  one of these options should work perfectly for you and will save you a major headache down the road when you accidentally delete that important file.