Need to create a backup process...

J

jnick

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Besides being an avid gamer, I am also a photographer. I have about 150GB of pictures from the past few years. In the past, I typically just did a periodic copy/paste of my data to a second drive and an external. I know, I know...it's not the best method :p.

I would like to begin using a much more reliable backup procedure for my data an am open to suggestions. At this point in time, I don't have the means to run another box dedicated for backups. Therefore, I'm looking for a solution that I can use on my gaming PC that won't bog it down.

Thanks!
 
Sorry, should have mentioned this...

I'm only looking to backup my data drives which is a compilation of photos, videos, documents, downloads, etc. No OS or apps are needed to be backed up.
 
You don't say in any of your posts or your signature what OS you're running, it's hard to answer your questions about SSDs, backups or else... ^-^
 
Since you didn't really post any specifics and you only have 150gb of photos I would get 2 different usb 1tb drives and just use syncback freeware for windows to copy every 2am
 
Sorry again...

OS: Win 7 Professional. The PC's disk setup is one 128GB Crucial SSD as the C: drive. A 250GB and 640GB drive for data. The 250GB has ALL of my data, the 640GB right now acts as the backup drive where I just copy and paste data. I will eventually be swapping out the 250GB with another 640GB drive (maybe larger).
 
Have a try first at Windows 7's own Backup and Restore (Accessories|Maintenance.)
After you have a full backup and several daily incrementals, rename or move your data folder(s) and restore from the backup to see how recovery works for you.
Run a full backup say once a month to reset the number of daily incremental backups, and delete the old ones after a while.

It's block-based, not file-based, so the backup drive will not be readable from a Mac or XP PC if you need the portability, you'd need a mirroring/sync tool instead.
 
Just use a cloud based storage setup like Mozy which is about $60/year. It's automated and off-site. Schedule the backup time to not interfere with your gaming, if it's online. I have several hundred GB stored on Mozy.
 
I finally broke down and signed up for CrashPlan+ about a week ago. So far, so good. My first 'test' ~15GB took about 4 days to upload without noticeably bogging down my connection.

One of the nice things in your situation is that the CrashPlan can help you combine backup to another hard drive as well as back to the cloud with the same piece of software.
 
Online backup is great if you have the upload bandwidth, it sucks with a normal DSL connection and even tends to hang the machine if you download too.
Just be aware that mozy, backblaze, and other $5/month services are just backup solutions, not archiving.
Meaning that if you delete a file from your desktop, it gets deleted online too after a delay.
All the files you want to backup must stay present at all times on your machine.

I found external HDDs to be more convenient and cheaper in the long term. Most of the times, you need to restore your backups because a whole HDD crashed or the OS is broken, not to restore just a few missing or corrupted files, so it's easier to just plug the HDD to a different machine or the repaired one.
 
Chimel said:
Just be aware that mozy, backblaze, and other $5/month services are just backup solutions, not archiving.
Meaning that if you delete a file from your desktop, it gets deleted online too after a delay.
All the files you want to backup must stay present at all times on your machine.
Click to expand...
For what it's worth, the CrashPlan+ (online/cloud) default setting is to never remove deleted files (it's a user selectable time period).
 
Is the Windows Backup and Restore tool reliable? Do I need to worry about the backups being corrupted?
 
Well this may seem pretty basic - test your backups by restoring from them. If your first test is after something is gone then you're doing it wrong.
 
Buy a second disk, archive manually once a month or so.

Use CrashPlan online for daily backups.

Seconding that the most important part is to test your backup.
 
Get a Fireproof safe to put your backup media in.
Make another copy to give to a friend that lives elsewhere.

I like to prepare for the worst scenario.
 
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