Syncback (the freeware edition – massive thanks to pp, aka ‘dopod’ for this one!) is first on this list for a reason. Everyone needs a good backup solution they can depend on. Don’t be like me losing my entire computer two Christmas’s ago when my RAM died whilst re-partitioning. Don’t be like my cousin Christie who lost all her year 12 work when her hard drive died, with no backup.

At home, I have a dedicated seperate hard drive now, purely for backing up, which I have happen all automatically at the click of a button, thanks to this awesome software. I then hide the portable hard drive somewhere else in the house in case we get robbed by burglars, and they want to steal my computer along with this nice shiny hard drive sitting right next to it. Even better still, take your portable hard drive and store it at a friends or relatives house several kilometres away, in case of natural disasters – but remember to back it up AT LEAST once a month!