How do you backup?

[Homerboy]

mp3s, videos and the like are on a 4x160 RAID5 server in my basement. If there's a fire I wont overly care too much about the loss of my music/video collection.

"My Documents" dir (which includes email, ~5gigs of jpgs, game saves, whatever) on my workstation(s) synchronize nightly to the afformentioned RAID5 on the home server and to a remote server in my friends data center in California (shameless plug: www.mzima.net)

I've also burned the irreplaceables such as financial records, jpgs etc to DVDs and they are placed in a fireproof box in my bedroom closet.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: tami
doe anyone use a backup program?

(i don't backup but i should... 680gb of mess needs to desperately be organized)

I know it sounds cheezy, but I've Ive tried dozens and dozens of backup utilities for both home and work and the best (for home use) that I've found is a simple little program called "Handy backup". As mentioned in my previous post, it does both HD->HD (LAN) and FTP synchronizations so that you always have a 1:1 copy of whatever dirs you are backing up.

I tried other home back up programs like SecondCopy 2000 but it lacked the FTP feature.

Handy Backup is my latest diamond in the rough find.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: lnguyen

Originally posted by: archcommus
I would trust small files on a floppy more than on a CD.

Any particular reason why? I've had/seen way too many floppies fail to trust them anything other than a temporary boot disk.

I've never had a floppy fail on me and I used them for YEARS before I owned a CD burner. CDs and DVDs are what I really don't trust, have had too many issues with them.

But the external HDD is really the ulimate solution. It allows for very quick transfers with USB2 and it's very easy to get rid of stuff you don't want anymore (esp. with sync software). I think an external one is even better than an internal RAID array because anything actually HOOKED UP to your computer is susceptible to damage if a surge or something else ever occurs. I like my backups to be hooked up to nothing except when I'm actually transferring.

Funny, I was about to add an external HD I trust less than optical media because of heat. A lot of external units I see have no fan, and people run them 24/7. It may work, but I don't feel comfortable about passive cooling a HD 🙂

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: lnguyen

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: lnguyen

Originally posted by: archcommus
I would trust small files on a floppy more than on a CD.

Any particular reason why? I've had/seen way too many floppies fail to trust them anything other than a temporary boot disk.

I've never had a floppy fail on me and I used them for YEARS before I owned a CD burner. CDs and DVDs are what I really don't trust, have had too many issues with them.

But the external HDD is really the ulimate solution. It allows for very quick transfers with USB2 and it's very easy to get rid of stuff you don't want anymore (esp. with sync software). I think an external one is even better than an internal RAID array because anything actually HOOKED UP to your computer is susceptible to damage if a surge or something else ever occurs. I like my backups to be hooked up to nothing except when I'm actually transferring.

Funny, I was about to add an external HD I trust less than optical media because of heat. A lot of external units I see have no fan, and people run them 24/7. It may work, but I don't feel comfortable about passive cooling a HD 🙂

24/7? I only turn mine on when I'm backing up, then it's off almost all the time.

 

[CraigRT]

external HD holds all my stuff
and some DVD's