Computer Backup Options?

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

tom slick

Joined
May 26, 2003
Messages
10,062
Location
Central Coast, Calif.
I just had a complete hard drive failure. It was the first absolute hd failure I've ever had, wouldn't boot and it lost all of it's partition information along with not formatting. I had most of the important stuff backed up, only really lost some photos but they weren't a big deal.

I currently have an external drive that I only use for backup purposes. my backing up is a manual process. I'm now thinking I need to automate it.

What backup schemes do you guys use? I know a raid setup gives redundancy but is not considered a "backup". What about online backup services such as Carbonite? Free software? Pay software?
 
I just grabbed a Seagate 500MB Free Agent 'Special Edition' from Office Max for $69. It features an automatic back-up system where you can specify the types of files it will automatically save. I have a lot of videos, 160MB. Some are important.
 
I just am not comfortable with local backups when considering the possibility of fire or theft. I had good success with Mozy, which I understand is very similar to Carbonite and priced about the same.

I've been using SugarSync for the past two years or so. The pricing is similar to the above. The big attraction for me is I used to split my time about equally between working off my laptop in the field and using a workstation at home. With SugarSync, I can choose which file folders duplicate onto both machines. As an example, every time I create a document on my workstation, it also saves to the laptop via the Internet. Ditto for photos I might be downloading to my laptop during the day, already waiting on the workstation at home. It does all this, plus backs up off site to SugarSync servers.

Another attraction is SugarSync also worked with my BlackBerry phone when I had one, so I could log in and view the contents of my shared folders from their website and grab or forward anything I needed from my phone.

Mozy and SugarSync have small free accounts that offer something like 2-GB of backup. I pay around $9.95 a month for 60-GB of backup, maybe more as I get like 10-GB every time a friend or client joins up.
 
Right now all the computers backup to my system, which has a RAID array. In the future Im going to get a pair of large external hard drives and backup my array (thus all the other systems) then stash them off site in a rotation.
Thats going to be expensive though. Need a pair of 1.5TB drives to match my array capacity. Have about 900GB to backup. About half of that is mine, the rest is from the other systems.
 
we use a magnetic tape system at work with weekly and monthly rotation where the tapes get sent in a lined envelope to sydney! can you believe it.

backup tapes are right in view of the front door too...
 
Originally Posted By: crinkles
we use a magnetic tape system at work with weekly and monthly rotation where the tapes get sent in a lined envelope to sydney! can you believe it.

backup tapes are right in view of the front door too...


Do you work on the old set of the movie "War Games" or something?
 
Another option is: Paragon Backup & Recovery. Supported File Systems NTFS, FAT 16, FAT 32, Linux Ex2FS - Ext4FS. Linux Swap. HPFS, Limited read/write access to Apple HFS+ partitions. Free registration.

Link to Paragon Backup & Recovery

Windows 7 users can use the backup program located in Control Panel. System & Security, Backup your computer. It too makes an emergency boot DVD disk.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
Do you work on the old set of the movie "War Games" or something?
Magnetic tapes are often still the most cost-effective method of backing up LARGE amounts of data for archival purposes. Hard drives make much more sense for the average home user - just got an email from Microcenter with 1TB drives for $60, which is absurdly cheap - but businesses often use very high density magnetic tape as a backup medium and have been doing so for a long time.
 
I use Acronis Online backup for $49.95 a year. You get 250GB of storage. I have it run every evening and after the first backup, it only backs up changes to files. You can go online and restore individual files or the entire backed up drive. I don't backup system files or program, just all of my documents, pictures, music, etc. It really works nicely.

I know some people don't like storing info on someone else's server, but for me, the convenience of the online backup is worth it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Comodo has a nice & free backup program for Windows.

If you want to get technical, Microsoft's Robocopy utility works like a champ for backing up stuff and keeping it sync'd with multiple sources.
 
I'm still a fan of the older versions of Ghost for hard drive (system) backups. As far a my offline backups to my external drive goes, I'm using Norton 360. I've played with Mozy and HPLine (no longer in use) but could never quite subject myself to the cost of online storage fees. Just saw the ad for Carbonite last night that made me think of it again.
 
A fellow engineer had his server crash w/28GB of data. He has been subscribed to Carbonite for a couple years, based on my recommendation ;-) but a weekend of downloading and he was up and running. For $60 year you can't beat the convenience, especially if you have had experience with tapes. We have our dental office backed w/Carbonite, haven't had to use it, but.........
Mike
 
Originally Posted By: tom slick
I currently have an external drive that I only use for backup purposes. my backing up is a manual process. I'm now thinking I need to automate it.


You on Windows or Linux? I don't automate it, but in Linux, I just tarball the entire partition and move it to another drive.
 
I use the Backup Utility for Windows XP and I've just started using the new Backup and Restore for Windows 7.

So far, I prefer the XP utility but neither are bad, both are free.
 
Originally Posted By: SrDriver
I use the following free program for backups to an external USB Drive. It's fast and works well. Make the emergency boot disk.

Link To Macrium Reflect Backup Software

If you are looking for a free remote site for backups up to 25 Gigs, use Skydrive.

Link To Skydrive Info

I use both of the above programs and have restored several times.






I found a limitation of skydrive. You are limited to 50MB file sizes. This is not good for video.
 
Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: SrDriver
I use the following free program for backups to an external USB Drive. It's fast and works well. Make the emergency boot disk.

Link To Macrium Reflect Backup Software

If you are looking for a free remote site for backups up to 25 Gigs, use Skydrive.

Link To Skydrive Info

I use both of the above programs and have restored several times.






I found a limitation of skydrive. You are limited to 50MB file sizes. This is not good for video.


I use Skydrive for backup of documents. Pictures, and sharing stuff with others.

Am aware that no file can be larger than 50MB but in my case that is not an issue.
 
I lost a Hitachi HD right after the warranty expired. They were not pleasant to deal with. Fortunately, I was backed-up.

I now use Acronis. The newer versions are a bit easier to use. I've stored BU's on CD's, DVD's and spare HD's. I don't have a lot of photos, movies, store my DVD's on a HD though.

One thing I've learned with Acronis. Before a complete backup, run some sort of HD cleaner, like CCleaner to get rid of the junk, then defrag the drive then back it up. Make incrementals at whatever time interval you chose, but don't defrag your drive again until just before you make another complete backup. What will happen is your next incremental will take far longer and be much larger because everything has been moved around . . according to Acronis.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

paulri
Keeping external drive plugged in to desktop 24/7
Replies
15
Views
294
robertfixit
paulri
Hard drive failures--time or useage?
2
Replies
31
Views
674
PandaBear
y_p_w
Corrupted iPad backup on my Mac
Replies
13
Views
401
y_p_w
F
Ubuntu Native Software Raid 1
Replies
7
Views
132
OVERKILL
Donald
Backup in Windows 11
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
Donald
Back
Top Bottom