Home Backup help

[rileychris]

SO I am currently using a single 160 GB hard drive for everything OS, Games, Storage, etc...

I don't have a ton of things to backup, but would hate to lose my photos, music, personal files.

What is a simple option for a home backup. I was thinking about a RAID since HD are cheap these days and my A8N-SLI Deluxe has RAID abiliites. It seems like there are several issues of using this as a backup though. The fact that future MB upgrades are tough, kind of makes me hesitant.

I have also considered trying to burn everythign to DVDs.

Are there other options I should be considering? Recommendations?

Looking forward to your help.

 

[RebateMonger]

I suggest purchasing an external USB hard drive and making periodic backups to it. You can likely find a 250GB or larger USB hard drive for less than $100. Connect it periodically and run backup software. Then disconnect it and store it somewhere safe.

I recommend getting the biggest backup drive that you can reasonably afford, so you can keep multiple copies of your entire PC. It's really common for folks to forget about important files when setting up backups and neglect including things like their email, etc. The safest thing is to just back up the ENTIRE system. Just start the backup when you go to bed and, the next day, disconnect the drive.

If you are using XP, you can use the free NTBackup program that's pre-installed in XP Professional or can be added to XP Home. Or you can use the backup software that comes with pre-built external USB hard drives.

DVDs are too much work and aren't necessarily reliable and RAID isn't a backup method.

 

[rileychris]

Thanks. I like the fact that this keepa all the information together and will let me physically separate it from my pc.

USB as opposed to firewire?

Anyone have a good recommendation on an external drive?

 

[RebateMonger]

I prefer USB simply because it's universal. You can hook a USB drive up to ANY PC to recover your data. Finding another PC with Firewire connections isn't as easy. The data transfer rates are virtually the same.

I've had REALLY good luck with inserting standard 3.5-inch IDE drives (which you can get dirt cheap on sale) into this Apricorn EZBus housing.
One client uses these with Seagate 320GB IDE drives to make daily backups of their SBS 2003 Server.

The housing has a fan, which I consider important for drive reliability. Virtually all the pre-built, commercial, USB hard drives don't have a fan and often have early failure of the hard drive itself. If you don't care to build your own, just buy whatever is on sale. They're all about the same.