Let’s suppose my budget is $20 and 20 minutes. What should I do?
Others have mentioned Dropbox, but it’s so wonderful I’ll mention it again. Dropbox. It’s almost as awesome in its just-works-ness as Time Machine (Apple’s awesome backup solution). Free up to 2GB, $10/month gets you 100GB. Runs on everything.
Note that Dropbox isn’t designed as a backup solution, it’s really for sharing files across multiple devices. It only preserves the current version of a file, so offers no protection against deleting a file you didn’t mean to. As soon as you edit a file, the changes are uploaded to the Dropbox cloud.
A point to remember is that every backup solution protects against some threats but not others, and you have to decide what you need to defend against. I have a Time Capsule (external drive for Time Machine backup), but it’s in the same room as the computer, so it provides excellent protection against disc failure or accidental deletion, but none against theft. So I also have an external drive that I plug in once a week and the rest of the time leave hidden elsewhere. If the files on your computer are your livelihood, you need an off-site backup to survive risks such as your house burning down, or serious burglars doing a complete house clearance.
Although I still need to determine which folders are worth saving, and this is a continuous, ongoing chore
A backup solution that presents a continuous, ongoing chore is not going to work. It has to be something that once you set it up, Just Works. I don’t know if there’s anything as awesome as Time Machine in this respect for Windows. Ideally a solution should automatically backup everything, except possibly some things you specifically exclude. If you only back up things you specifically decide to, you will inevitably leave things out, that you’ll only discover when you need the backup you don’t have.
It only preserves the current version of a file, so offers no protection against deleting a file you didn’t mean to. As soon as you edit a file, the changes are uploaded to the Dropbox cloud.
Dropbox actually does version control, which has saved several files I’ve accidentally deleted or overwritten. It’s only up to 30 days, though.
Others have mentioned Dropbox, but it’s so wonderful I’ll mention it again. Dropbox. It’s almost as awesome in its just-works-ness as Time Machine (Apple’s awesome backup solution). Free up to 2GB, $10/month gets you 100GB. Runs on everything.
Note that Dropbox isn’t designed as a backup solution, it’s really for sharing files across multiple devices. It only preserves the current version of a file, so offers no protection against deleting a file you didn’t mean to. As soon as you edit a file, the changes are uploaded to the Dropbox cloud.
A point to remember is that every backup solution protects against some threats but not others, and you have to decide what you need to defend against. I have a Time Capsule (external drive for Time Machine backup), but it’s in the same room as the computer, so it provides excellent protection against disc failure or accidental deletion, but none against theft. So I also have an external drive that I plug in once a week and the rest of the time leave hidden elsewhere. If the files on your computer are your livelihood, you need an off-site backup to survive risks such as your house burning down, or serious burglars doing a complete house clearance.
A backup solution that presents a continuous, ongoing chore is not going to work. It has to be something that once you set it up, Just Works. I don’t know if there’s anything as awesome as Time Machine in this respect for Windows. Ideally a solution should automatically backup everything, except possibly some things you specifically exclude. If you only back up things you specifically decide to, you will inevitably leave things out, that you’ll only discover when you need the backup you don’t have.
Dropbox actually does version control, which has saved several files I’ve accidentally deleted or overwritten. It’s only up to 30 days, though.