If you have just the one computer, you have a problem. You have got no easy way of doing backups (except maybe to an external hard drive, USB or other memory stick, or recordable DVD or CD media).
If you have multiple computers, you can solve that problem easily by copying your important files between them, but then a different problem manifests itself. If you work on projects on multiple machines and you "hot desk," you may not have the files you're working on on your current computer. Also, you have to make sure that the important files are copied in both places.
Iphone Application
There are a couple of solutions to this. If you're running with a Windows PC, there are two Applications that allow you to synchronise the contents of your folders. This means that the two folders will have exactly the same contents. It is handled by performing operations on the remote folder periodically to ensure the same files exist on both sides with the same contents.
For Windows PCs, there are two Applications that handle this. Searching for 'SyncToy' will provide you with a link to some free software from Microsoft that can perform this task.
Karen's Replicator will do the same job, but it also allows you to set up a schedule, and keeps details of its history. It is free for non-commercial purposes; a relatively cheap license is available if you want to run it in connection with your business; and there exist a number of other programs that come with that license. Search for 'Karen's Replicator' for more details.
These are fine if you run Windows all the time, but there is a solution that works on other platforms, including Mac and Linux. You can even access your files via an iPhone.
It stores a copy of your files on secured servers on the internet, and then when you make any changes to the folder that you set up to synchronise, those changes will be copied to the server on the internet. They will then propagate to any other machines that you have connected to the service on which you have set up a similar folder.
The service is intelligent enough to know that if your computers are on the same network and powered up and running at the same time, they can talk to each other to synchronise the folders between them, and the transfer does not have to proceed across the internet; this saves time. Of course, the files are still copied to the servers on the internet, regardless.
The transfer over the internet takes some time, depending partly on the speed of your internet connection (BroadBand recommended). This is not good for copying huge quantities of data, unless you've got the time to wait for it. For tens of gigabytes of data, it could take days! But for smaller quantities, and especially if you're working on a project, it's a good service.
The service is positioned as a backup solution as well. Again, if your backup needs are light, then it's likely to be good for you. If you have a lot of data that you wish to back up, you're better off getting a hard drive big enough to handle the data, and using one of the software-only solutions described above.
The service is called DropBox, and at the time of writing it is free for up to 2Gb of data and has subscription options to allow you to use it for up to 100Gb.
Synchronising Your Files Between Computers Easily