AOL Does Desktop Backups

from the lead-a-horse-to-water... dept

As some people who have heard my tirades against failing hard drives know, I'm obsessed with backing up computers -- sometimes having three completely different backup solutions running at any particular time. However, most users still don't bother to think about backups... until after they've lost a bunch of important data. So, while there are an increasing number of consumer-focused solutions on backups, it's not clear that people are really interested in them just yet. For that reason, it will be interesting to see how successful AOL is in marketing a desktop file backup solution to its users. It makes sense that ISPs should offer this type of solution to users. For many home users, their ISP help desks are the equivalent of the home "technology help desk," and rather than having to go out and find their own solution, they look to those providers to offer all the security and management tools they need. Still, even with AOL offering this fairly standard backup service (and they're probably just reselling someone else's offering), will people who haven't lost data suddenly find it worthwhile to back up important files? It seems unlikely.