I think by now, we all know the importance of backing our data up. Additionally, I think many of us have begun taking extra steps in the field to back-up our photos in case a memory card becomes corrupted, or more likely, goes missing.

Enter the backup devices. Surprisingly, there's not much of a selection. Check it our for yourself, there are only a handful of reputable devices on the market. And guess what else - they're expensive.

If you read the title of this post, I'm sure you've already caught onto what I do: I use a netbook as a backup device. Why? A few main reasons:

1. They cost less than the majority of photo backup devices that offer comparable storage. Case in point - my Dell Mini 10v cost me $334 - 10 inch screen, 160 GB Hard Drive, 6 hour battery life (with wi-fi turned on). An Epson P7000 would have cost me $725 - 4 inch screen, 160 GB Hard Drive, no idea what the battery life would be (every review I read reported it differently due to the fact that every photographer uses the device differently). Even the P6000 would have cost $530 and only offered 80 GB of storage.
   
   
2. They are infinitely more useful than dedicated photo backup devices as you can compose emails, browse the web, check the news, uh...I think you know what a computer can do at this point. Essentially, these little netbooks can keep you from lugging your 15" or 17" notebook around all day - so long as you don't attempt to actually do any post-production work on them.
   
   
3. (This one only applies to a certain audience) If you pick the right netbook and are willing to take some risks, you can make yourself a neat little hackintosh. You probably already know by now that I'm a mac-person, and that while I'd live with Windows 7 on a netbook, I'd much rather be using a mac.

Make sure to consider netbooks when you're shopping around for a backup device, you may be surprised at what you find.