This may seem like a drag, but we're not being paranoid. Recently, when a glitch in Google's system deleted all of their e-mail messages and disabled their Gmail accounts. Sure, only 0.02 percent of Gmail's user base was affected, but that 0.02 percent was pretty ticked off, to say the least. Luckily, Google not only (under different circumstances, knowing this fact ), but it also keeps tape backups, and thus was able to .

The recent Gmail outage may have ended happily, but it still should be a wake-up call for anyone who . The time to back up your Web-based e-mail is now.

Google's Gmail gives you plenty of space--over 7.5GB of space, actually--to store thousands of e-mail messages, but that doesn't mean you should put all of your e-mail eggs in one basket. Fortunately, you have a simple, free way to back up your Gmail account in one fell swoop: .

Gmail Backup works with both Windows and Linux. Here's how to back up your Gmail in just a few minutes: