Back up or be sorry, says Seagate
It's backup mania over at hard drive maker Seagate, which has launched its second annual Backup Awareness Month to get consumers hip to the importance of backing up priceless data. As part of the June education campaign, the company is promoting a five-step "best practices" program to protect digital files. Seagate, which recently acquired rival Maxtor, is also sponsoring a Drive-A-Day Giveaway in which consumers can win a new 100GB portable Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition.
A recent poll sponsored by Maxtor showed that nearly half of adult U.S. computer users who have digital content stored on their machines risk losing their digital files because they don't back them up to external devices or media. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, queried 2,604 U.S. adult computer users. The reason most frequently cited by those who don't back up is that they're not sure how to do it (35 percent). Twenty-nine percent said they don't think it's important enough to worry about, 14 percent think it takes too much time and 11 percent don't back up because they believe backup devices cost too much.
Leslie Katz, senior editor of CNET's Crave, covers gadgets, games, and most other digital distractions. As a co-host of the CNET News Daily Podcast, she sometimes tries to channel Terry Gross. E-mail Leslie. 
