Get a year of SOS Online Backup for $19.99
It's not unlimited storage, but the 100GB allotment should be more than enough for most users. This same subscription would normally run you $99.99.
A friend of mine recently asked whether she should pay to have her laptop repaired or just buy a new one. Repaired for what? The hard drive had died, taking all of her data with it.
If you don't have some kind of cloud-backup solution in place, you're facing the same potential nightmare. I don't bother with whole-system local backups anymore because they're time-consuming and a hassle, and restoration rarely seems to work properly. Rather, I protect just my data, which can easily be restored to any PC (or just accessed online).
That's my long-winded cautionary-tale way of introducing today's deal: StackSocial has a one-year subscription to SOS Online Backup for $19.99. Regular price: $99.99. That's not the best deal I've seen for this service, but it's still a very god one.
SOS Online Backup offers 100GB of space for an unlimited number of PCs, Macs, and/or mobile devices (including Android and iOS). That alone gives the service a fairly major edge over most competitors, which limit you to just, say, one PC per subscription.
For desktop users, the SOS client software will automatically search for and earmark the files that need backing up. The ForeverSave feature "automatically and infinitely archives your files," meaning it keeps backups of earlier versions of your files as well as the current ones. And the service promises significantly faster uploads than either Carbonite or Mozy.
Like any good backup service, this one also allows you to access your files via app or browser and share them as needed with friends, family, co-workers, etc.
I haven't tried SOS Online Backup myself, and CNET hasn't reviewed it, but PC Magazine awarded it an Editors' Choice nod four years in a row. In the most recent review (which dates back to 2011), they said it "just keeps getting better."
Obviously $20 for a year of nearly unlimited online backup is a steal. The question, of course, is what to do after that year is up. Would you be willing to pay $100 for the same service? My take: You've got 12 months to figure it out. And by then maybe you'll be able to snag another promotion. For now, I say grab this and get going on the backup you know you should be making, but aren't.
Bonus deal: In response to my recent post about things I saw at CES I'd actually buy, many readers challenged my recommendation of the Channel Master DVR+ by pointing to the Magnavox MDR537H/f7, which for about the same price includes 1TB of storage and a DVD burner. However, it would appear to lack any kind of program guide, and last I checked, DVD is not an HD medium. Plus, it has only one tuner. I think for modern OTA recording, you'll be better off with something like the Channel Master DVR+, Tablo DVR, or Simple.TV. Much, much more on this subject to come.
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