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LaCie has announced that it will provide one year of free online backup with the purchase of any LaCie external hard drive, starting next month.

"LaCie has partnered with Carbonite to handle online backups for its customers," writes Macworld's Jim Dalrymple. "According to LaCie, the year starts after the user installs the software and contacts the Carbonite Web site for the backups to begin."

"The Carbonite software automatically backs up the LaCie drive, finding new and modified files, encrypting them twice, and then uploading them to a secure data center," writes TUAW's Steven Sande. "The information remains encrypted while at the data center to maintain user privacy."

"The company's set no limit as to how much data can be stored with the service, though the required software is only available for XP and Vista users," notes Obsessable's Stephen Schenck.

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