1 Mozy.com
Mozy is one of the biggest players in the online storage business. Register at no charge and you get 2GB of space, but it's better to plump for the unlimited-storage option at $4.95 (£3) a month. After installing its software (PC or Mac) and setting preferences, Mozy automatically backs up your computer every week, and can send the data back to you either over broadband or on DVD.
The most generous free site offers 50GB of storage with its basic account. It won't back up your files automatically, but if you want free storage and you've got the time and patience to upload files, take a look.
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Even if you have no desire to share your pictures online, ever, failing to back them up is madness. With a free Flickr account, you can upload and store 100MB of snaps a month; for $24.95 (£15) a year, the sky's the limit.
Like Mozy, Carbonite's $55-a-year (£34)service requires you to install a program (PC or Mac). This works in the background to update an unlimited number of files to the firm's servers. Lose your computer and you can reinstall the software on a new machine, enter your password, then restore the lot.
Savvy web users co-opt Google's services as free storage. With a Google Mail account you can add attachments to draft emails, then save them without sending - the 7GB of space will take some time to fill up.
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Large email attachments can sometimes be rejected. This site allows you to upload
an attachment, send a message to the recipient and allow them to download it. The basic, free service has a 1GB-a-month cap; for $10 (£6) a month you get to send up to 40GB of data.
7 Box.net
Store files in your "box" and you can access them on any computer and most mobiles, or share files with friends by sending them links. 1GB is free; $10 a month gets you 5GB.
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Works in the background on PCs, Macs and most smartphones - useful if you use a phone to take a lot of pictures. The charge is $10 a month for 60GB of storage.
Hotmail and Windows Live users already have a free SkyDrive account. Storage is 25GB and you can drag and drop files to the online "drive", but it's a slow and fiddly process.
10 Esnips.com
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The emphasis here is on sharing photos, videos and graphics, but curmudgeons can turn off all these options and use the site simply as 5GB of free storage.
Yes, it's possible to buy a 1TB (terabyte, or 1000GB) hard drive for peanuts these days, but no matter how careful you are at backing up vital data to it, in the event of a burglary or house fire, you're going to lose the lot. So best spread the risk with online storage. There's more available than ever and it's getting cheaper and easier to use by the day - no wonder the sector is one of the web's fastest-growing businesses.
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