how you backup your data

[footbal07]

i was interested in what you guys use for data security/redundancy these days

 

[JBT]

My important stuff I pretty much put on three different HDD's. I put one on my main 74GB, one on my 200GB and also put most stuff on my laptop as well.

 

[fstime]

I use a Seagate internal as my main backup and I put my most importent things on my external.

 

[Navid]

RAID is not backup!

 

[Chaotic42]

Internal Hard Drive

 

[sharkeeper]

RAID is not backup!

Indeed!

This is self explanatory.

Cheers!

 

[suse920]

i send all my stuff to another computer with my backupdrive in it on my home network.

 

[footbal07]

i added those raids to the list because of their redundancy which in my book is as good as having a backup. i am well aware of what raid is. what i meant was how do u protect your data. personally i use dvds and have multiple copies of important files on different harddrives, but i am thinking of either setting up a raid 5 array or getting a couple 3.5in enclosures and some 250s.

 

[Navid]

Some people are not aware or do not think about the fact that if you by mistake delete a file on a RAID system, you will lose that file.

Or if a virus destroys some files on your RAID, you will lose those files too. RAID is not going to give you those files back.

Backup, by definition, will save you in those cases.

 

[Alex]

secondary internal... plus DVDs if its important enough

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I only have 1 HD for main use, and use about 5 DVDs for anything important to me to backup.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: Navid
RAID is not backup!

Best comment evar.....

 

[WackyDan]

I use a Linksys USB NAS device with 2 external USB harddrives.....

I run batch scripts on start up to back up my machines to the NAS... Once weekly, one drive on the NAS mirrors itself to the other.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

3.5" Floppies.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

I don't have any files important enough to back up... but I do keep some movies on DVDs. Does that count?

 

[RalfHutter]

External HDD, in a NAS box.

 

[imported_malcontent]

Usually will back up to a DVD or two.
I have been looking into NAS for this purpose.

 

[corkyg]

Two external HDDs. #2 being a clone of #1, so that is data backed up twice.

 

[CEV]

My question would be now is what software do you use to do this?

 

[Jeff7]

My secondary PC has a RAID 5 setup and a DVD burner. Every night, a backup program (Second Copy 2000) runs on my PC, copying specific folders to the RAID 5 array. Some things that I wouldn't want to lose in the event of a power surge or other really serious problem, I keep on DVD+RW.

I did however just get a SATA removable hard drive enclosure. (Wow, SATA cables are thin!) That might render the DVD+RW discs obsolete. The fiasco a few years back with some CD-R/RW's beginning to peel apart after only a few months (I experienced this myself with a bunch of discs) has made me a bit wary of blank optical discs.

Originally posted by: Navid
Some people are not aware or do not think about the fact that if you by mistake delete a file on a RAID system, you will lose that file.

Or if a virus destroys some files on your RAID, you will lose those files too. RAID is not going to give you those files back.

Backup, by definition, will save you in those cases.

Which is what programs like R-studio are good for. Deleted the wrong video file that your PC just spent 36 hours rendering? Phew, R-studio can find it.

 

[thecrecarc]

back up my hard drive? i dont

 

[WayneTeK]

what's a NAS box?

 

[Woody419]

I use BootIt NG for a complete image on an internal hd. I also copy the image to a removable hd kept offsite. I can restore 37GB of information in a couple of hours. The restored image is a fully tweaked XP Pro, all security updates, data, games, ect., all ready to go. ALL hard drives fail, it's not if, it's when.

Fred Langa has researched this and has written extensively about backups.
"This is the Holy Grail of Backups: A method that ensures you?ll never lose an important file; never have to rebuild your system and reinstall all your software from scratch; never have to re-type or recreate old data; never have that awful ?Oh, no!? moment when you realize you need a file you deleted several weeks--- or even years--- ago."

Back Up Info Part 1
Back Up Info Part 2
Back Up Info Part 3
Back Up Info Part 4
Back Up Info Part 5
Back Up Info Part 6
Back Up Info Part 7
Back Up Info Part 8
Back Up Info Part 9
Back Up Info Part 10
Back Up Info Part 11
Back Up Info Part 12

 

[dunkster]

Weekly imaging of OS and DATA partitions to DVD media.

Terabyte 'Image for Windows' for imaging any/all partitions, 'Image for DOS' for is needed for restore of OS partition.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: CEV
My question would be now is what software do you use to do this?

Whatever software I happen to be using. It is called SAVE (goes to main HDD) and SAVE AS (goes to backup HDD.)

It's really pretty basic, but very effective and fool proof. Being a control freak - I do not like to rely on "automatic" anything.