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Whats a good backup solution?

S

SteelGuy

Member
So I think I just lost my 320gb hard drive (I posted my problem late last night in tech support: Here )

But I was wondering, now that I will probably buy a different hard drive (not a western digital probably a seagate) how do you guys go about backing up your stuff.

Do you use DVD's, buy another external hard drive, do you have a server.

What is a good cheap/effective method.

I've lost stuff not only this year, but last year as well (laptop was stolen).

Anyways, throw some ideas out there (and if you can please check out the problem in tech - maybe someone in here knows whats up.)

Thanks a lot.
 
I store important stuff on two hard drives (not RAID, I just do it myself)

I also backup on DVDs once in a while (mainly my digital photos)

EDIT: both of my drives are internal.

When I burn DVDs, I burn two copies and also do my backups so that I have overlap from the previous DVDs. I do this in a manner that I have 4 DVDs total with each file so hopefully I have some decent redundancy in there.

The vast majority of my stuff I wouldn't really care if I lost, so pictures are my primary concern.
 
RAID 5, RAID 1, and important stuff in several locations (thumb drive, other computers, etc). I lost two hard drives yesterday (one stand alone, no data lost though & one drive in RAID 1 array). I will never backup anything to DVD again, after nearly all of them were fvcked up. Out of ~35 DVDz, I recovered about 9 gb of data. Never again...
 
Yoyo: External or another internal?

Fullmetal: sucks about the DVDs

I def feel your pain about losing the hard drives. I lost a lot of media. (and i haven't even run through my head what else - still clinging to the idea of recovery)

You guys have a pref on a manfacturer, I use a raptor to boot up ..seems a lot of ppl like seagate.
 
I'm using three western digital drives right now (two 120s and an 80). I haven't had trouble with dying drives of the 6-7 I've had in the past several years. I've been lucky.
 
I use DLT. Up to 38 tapes now. 🙂 I need to update my DLT drive to a higher capacity one. I backup once a month as it takes a long time. Nothing compresses anymore. 🙁
 
Do what the guys said above (RAID and such)
and.....
Run "Spinrite" (buy it) every 2 weeks and it will refresh your HD and tell you if anything is failing on the drive. Gives you time to back it up and prevent total loss.
 
Do you guys think an external hard drive is better than an internal?

Or is it only better because its possible to take it and store it elsewhere so its really safe (IE Fire, broken into)

*also - I found a program that might recover my data! its called getdataback, seems to detect I still have data on there...but think i need to format the drive no mater what...So i guess Ill have to buy a new HD (or clear space) to store stuff.

Not to mention its 80 bucks. Oh well.
 
Bump for my question on whether an external or internal is a better solution.

I feel like I'd personally be more inclined to drag and drop some files rather than pull out a drive from a closet and turn it on etc.

Or do most of you have it plugged in ready to go for when you need to backup?
 
After having being burned more than once. Here is what I would recommend:

1. All hds fail, reliability wise Seagate, WD>Samsung>Hitachi>Maxtor. Seagate's quality is falling.
2. If using large hds, create a smaller partition for OS/programs, and much larger one for data - all data should go to individual folders in that partition - not My documents, My Pictures or Desktop .
3. Better still have second hd for all data. No RAID.
4. Use a folder copying program, I recommend Karen's Replicator or Cobian back (both free), and backup at least once a week (automatic schedule).
5. An external hd enclosure is very useful as it can be used back up more than pc, and moved about, taken with you if there is hurricane coming. Run a weekly/monthly/whatever manual backup schedule.
6. If you build your pcs, clone the primary drive/partition, using ghost or True Image, on a old drive/or buy 10GB drives from the web at about 15$, you can even use any maxtor drives you may have lying around, put them in a anti static bag and store safely.



 
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