Backing up?

M

Mekanic01

Gawd
Joined
Jul 11, 2002
Messages
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Not sure where I'm going with this, but here's the deal. Wifey recently had her hard drive croak on her, and while I was doing the data salvage, it died off like a T-Rex. She never backed anything up, and is now quite turned off my computers, because she lost some very sentimental stuff.

I've always used System Restore, not really considering the possibility that a hdd would die. Now I've been thinking of what I can do to prevent the massive data loss.

I'll have (within the next week) a new system with a WD640 hard drive, running 64-bit Home Premium, and she now has an WD80 (and old one of mine) running XP Pro. We are on a network, although I've never been able to get the network sharing to actually work. Anyway, what should I do?

Should I go with a large USB hard drive, that I can back both pcs to, or a network drive? I'd prefer to keep the cost down too.
 
How much data? Backing up to a USB hard drive isn't the best cause you are still backing up to a hard drive that you can drop or that can fail. Look into Mozy Home, 55 bucks for the year unlimited data.
 
Backing up to another hard drive is fine. Your data will then be in 2 places so it's already a better situation. Use 2 externals if you're paranoid. You can plug it in anywhere and get your data off quick if you need to. You can get a 500gb hard drive for $80.

You'd need over 100 DVDs to back up that much... and burning and restoring that data will take forever. Same with tape. However, with a hard drive you just copy it over. Much faster.

You can use backup software that copies only the new or changed files. The first time you copy everything to the external will take a while. But each time after that will be quick. And since its just a backup, USB speeds are fine.

My backup philosophy is this: Data doesn't exist unless it's in 2 or more places. I back up my important stuff to a portable USB hard drive every day or so. And to another external hard drive less often. But it exists in 3 places. The chance of 1 drive failing is slim. The chance of 2 or 3 hard drives failing at the same time is impossible.
 
Thanks MScrip, that's what I needed to know. Any recommendations on backup good, but cheap backup software?
 
dunno backing up on external drives is fine for home use, but i would never recommend it for business. your still backing up on a hard drive, if you dont have all that much data i would get a online backup for it. if you have alot of data do a lto3 drive if you really care. worse would happen is if your computer crashes and then you try to restore data but the drive in the external is also bad from bouncing around no the way home from work...
 
marley1 said:
dunno backing up on external drives is fine for home use, but i would never recommend it for business. your still backing up on a hard drive, if you dont have all that much data i would get a online backup for it. if you have alot of data do a lto3 drive if you really care. worse would happen is if your computer crashes and then you try to restore data but the drive in the external is also bad from bouncing around no the way home from work...
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It's for home use, not business. Buying a hard drive is a one time thing, rather than paying yearly for somebody else to hold my data. Also, the hard drive isn't going to get excessive use, just going to be hooked up weekly maybe even monthly to do backups. And like Mscrip says, the first time will be the heaviest, and the rest will just be changes. The drive also wont leave my house, as it will sit on my desk 90% of the time, and my wife's desk 10% of the time. I actually hard faith in hard drive technology, as the hard drive that fried in my wife's pc was at least 8 years old before it showed it's age. For an old Quantum Fireball 20gb, I'm pretty damn impressed. The data loss she had was her own fault. I told her to start putting her pics and shit on cd's a long time ago, and she chose instead to add more stuff to her hard drive. I personally don't keep much on mine that requires backing up, other than maybe some rare music files and pictures.
 
so if you knew the answer why ask the question?

what happens if your house burns down or someone steals the computer? then your main computer and your backup are gone. all my home user clients love Mozy Home for the backup. Doesn't need you to plug in a drive and remember to click on a Backup button or configure a backup set. It just does it stuff, first backup is a full backup and after that it is intial. For 55 bucks a year its a crazy smart solution. Revisions of the file, peace of mind.

But to answer your question the cheapest software is just make a batch file or to buy like Sync Toy.
 
synctoy is actually free from microsoft, but i actually prefer karen's replicator... and i've used both extensively...

just seems to work better
 
marley1 said:
so if you knew the answer why ask the question?

what happens if your house burns down or someone steals the computer? then your main computer and your backup are gone. all my home user clients love Mozy Home for the backup. Doesn't need you to plug in a drive and remember to click on a Backup button or configure a backup set. It just does it stuff, first backup is a full backup and after that it is intial. For 55 bucks a year its a crazy smart solution. Revisions of the file, peace of mind.

But to answer your question the cheapest software is just make a batch file or to buy like Sync Toy.
Click to expand...

If you read the first post, I wasn't asking who to trust my data to. I was asking whether to go USB or network drive. Quit pushing your wares on me. If all you want to do is sell your product/service, there is a Sale forum at the top of the forum home page.
 
lol im not selling you shit. i dont make any money off mozy home, its just what i see all my clients like and use. i have replaced tons of nas and external hard drives because clients dont want to have the hassle of checking on the item.

get a external drive and be done with it, or nas if your backing up multiple computers. if you go nas get a raid device.,
 
I'm glad I could help.

I've looked into online backup solutions. How fast are they? I'm limited by upload speeds. As a test, I sent 30 full-res JPGs to my account on Drop Box. It took 20 minutes... for 30 pictures. What about my 20,000 pictures? I'd rather fill up a hard drive and mail it to someone. How much is a Priority Mail package? :)

Considering most people do NOT have any backups at all... having your stuff copied to another hard drive is better than nothing.
 
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