Do you backup your computer files? How do you do it? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

sfloriII · #1 10-01-2009, 03:30 PM

Hello All,
I was wondering how many people actually back up their computer files. My wife and I were thinking about subscribing to an online backup service like Mozy but wonder about the security of doing something like that, regardless of uploading sensitive material. We do have an external hard drive. What's the safest harddrive available? Just wondering...

Mistress · #2 10-01-2009, 03:33 PM

external hard drive.

powerpig · #3 10-01-2009, 03:37 PM

'Use the free edition of Macruim Reflect and back up to non volatile media such as a DVD RW. You can use an external hard drive, but they fail.

Jorn · #4 10-01-2009, 03:43 PM

I back up everything to a second drive. Unfortunate I needed some room on my Powerbook so I deleted stuff to make some room...back up drive failed with out warning (Lacie drive: they are known for doing this, don't buy them!) so all that "stuff" is gone. I will now back up everything to two non Lacie drives.

I cloned my entire hard drive. So if everything worked out how it was supposed to be it would function as a start up drive ass well, so I would not have to reinstall all the software and look for all the bookmarks etc. But this would have been the case in a perfect world...

So if you back it up to a solid drive, back it up to two separate drives

pawoSD · #5 10-01-2009, 04:24 PM

Everything my family does is stored on a main server, which has mirrored hard drives. Then, that server auto-mirrors itself to another identical server. Triple Redundancy.

iwrock · #6 10-01-2009, 08:07 PM

Depends on what it is that I am backing up...

All media fails over time. CDs, DVDs, Flash, etc.

For big files I need to keep a while, I back up to a server running a raid. For smaller files, I usually back stuff up onto my MobileMe drive. Makes it easy to keep track of my files, and I have access to them everywhere.

dlevitt · #7 10-02-2009, 07:54 PM

You will want multiple backups, on different types of media, stored at different locations.

On my Macbook, I use

Time Machine, on a USB disk that I keep at work.
Time Machine on another USB disk I keep at home.
Apple's online backup for my 'Documents' directory
I do a frequent mirror to a bootable backup on a firewire drive [that drive is stored in a firebox]
Photo libraries are kept in DVD size [< 4.5G] chunks, and stored in two fireboxes [one at home and one at my stepson's house]

I will be upgrading the internal drive, when I upgrade to 10.6, and that will have a cascading effect on all the external drives. This may be obsessive, but I've been doing this sort of thing since the bits in confusers

were big enough to pick up with tweezers.

kknudson · #8 10-02-2009, 08:50 PM

External HarddriveS using Acronis, hard drives are rotated every week to a safe spot (fireproof safe).

I like Acronis, as it is an Image program, I can recover bare metal in a half hour. Restore individual files in a blink.

But any method, that is automatic works, a batch file with XCopy is perfectly acceptable.

PRACTICE/TEST A RESTORE / RECOVER BEFORE YOU NEED IT !!!!!!!!!!
You don't have a backup if you haven't tried to recover a file from it.

Emmerich · #9 10-03-2009, 02:17 AM

Critical files to a Zip disk (750MB)

Full C: drive backup to identical drive in the PC

Full C: drive backup to USB external drive

Full C: drive backup to NAS device in different part of house.

Used Norton Ghost for a while but everything Norton puts out these days are huge resource hogs.

link · #10 10-04-2009, 10:40 AM

Many good suggestions here. I wanted to add that if you have database or accounting info that it is a good idea to make a unique backup every time you use the program. Some programs such as Quicken can do this for you with a little bit of configuring the backup option. Other programs depend on one of the SQL servers and you’d need to use SQL management console to do the backups. Backing up open databases (and open files) doesn’t always work.

And I wanted to reiterate that it is important to do a test restore periodically. If you don’t test you’ll go through the motions and may still suffer a loss when it matters.

aklim · #11 10-04-2009, 10:51 AM

What kind of files? Pictures? Documents that will change from time to time?

Say you are doing valuable digital pictures. 2 sets of backups on CD Roms and put them at different locations. Say a safe deposit box.

IF you are doing a document that changes from time to time, say your will, same thing but put a hard copy with your attorney.

If I were doing spreadsheets, I'd keep a local copy, 3 backups. One on site, one off site. This morning if I do a backup, I send it off. When the vault receives it, the vault sends their last copy back and I have one more copy elsewhere.

pawoSD · #12 10-04-2009, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aklim

What kind of files? Pictures? Documents that will change from time to time?

Say you are doing valuable digital pictures. 2 sets of backups on CD Roms and put them at different locations. Say a safe deposit box.

IF you are doing a document that changes from time to time, say your will, same thing but put a hard copy with your attorney.

If I were doing spreadsheets, I'd keep a local copy, 3 backups. One on site, one off site. This morning if I do a backup, I send it off. When the vault receives it, the vault sends their last copy back and I have one more copy elsewhere.

You are aware that the shelf live of a CD-R/DVD+-R is about 5-7 years right?

Sometimes less...depends on the quality of the disk. Tape is the best bet for long term storage, or hard drives.

Matt L · #13 10-04-2009, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawoSD

You are aware that the shelf live of a CD-R/DVD+-R is about 5-7 years right?

Sometimes less...depends on the quality of the disk. Tape is the best bet for long term storage, or hard drives.

RW is supposedly much better for archival. Tapes have very strict environmental specifications.

pawoSD · #14 10-04-2009, 02:58 PM

I've read that too......IMHO a big hard drive powered down and stored in a box in a cool/dry place is one of the best ways to store things. Or tapes in the same conditions.

Matt L · #15 10-04-2009, 03:02 PM

The problem with a hard drive is that you also need the supporting electronics to work, or you have a very expensive restore on your hands. Electronic parts do sometimes just break, even while in storage.

With removable media, you can always buy new hardware. Now, that may be difficult, especially with magnetic tapes. What if your format is obsolete?

DVDs will also eventually become obsolete, replaced by something that can't read them. Whether this will happen in our lifetimes is the only question.