Patent ID: 7356535

Claim:
A tangible computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions being executed by a processor for facilitating the transfer of back-up copies of one or more files from a first computer to a second computer via a communications network including the Internet or via a portable computer readable storage medium, comprising: instructions for designating files from the first computer for which back-up copies will be transferred to the second computer, said first computer and said second computer being Internet-enabled; instructions for receiving, at the first computer, user input defining destination identification data; instructions for identifying an Internet location of the second computer as a function of the defined identification data; instructions for determining a total size of the designated files being transferred from the first computer to the second computer; instructions for indicating whether to transfer the designated files from the first computer to the second computer via the network or whether to transfer the files from the first computer to the second computer via the portable computer readable storage medium based on the determined total size of the designated files being transferred; instructions for selectively transferring, based on the instructions for indicating, the designated files from the first computer to the second computer via the network or from the first computer to the second computer via the portable computer readable medium; wherein either the designated files are directly transferred from the first computer to the second computer at the identified location via the Internet and not via the portable computer readable storage medium or the designated files are transferred from the first computer to the second computer via the portable computer readable storage medium and not via the Internet.