Backup

[Alan]

So, what would you use for backing up data on your PC at home, The REALLY important stuff on my PC (about 2MB of documents) is stored on both physical disks inside my pc and on a USB memory stick.

But ive got some larger files I'd be gutted if my PC hard drive died and would love to keep them safe, problem is... its around 200GB of data.

So, do I just burn it all to DVD's or invest in a large capacity USB hard disk, or wait a few month months for BlueRay to come down in price. I burned some important stuff to CD around 10 years ago and cant read it today as the film layer on the CD has flaked off, so rather avoid this again if possible.

 

[nath]

So, what would you use for backing up data on your PC at home, The REALLY important stuff on my PC (about 2MB of documents) is stored on both physical disks inside my pc and on a USB memory stick.

Not really sure what the best solution is as discs do degrade however I can tell you that a USB memory stick is NOT a good place to backup you're data. They're incredibly volatile and very tricky to get data off when they're buggered.

 

[wyrd_fish]

i use a samba server for my music, as well as having it on my big computer

it's soon to be raided so i can delete it from my big computer comfatablaly


you may want to look at external HDDs, i quite like them, they're cool


...or even just another HDD, to stick in to back up onto, then remove for storage

 

[Maljonic]

I second the hard disk for removal idea. I have documents dating back years now on dozens of hard disks that I can still access if I need to. I usually copy over everything to newwer hard disks too, so the oldest stuff ends up on dozens of hard disks.

I think with back ups, the more you have in different places the better - if it is important to you. I would also recommend CDs as an additional back up if you want to access the data easily, plus they are easy to file. For super mega really important stuff you should also print out hard copies and keep seperate copies in different locations in case your house or office burns down.

P.S. I would also like to add that hard disks have a great capacity for recoverability, even when they appear totally knackered.

 

[anattic]

HD's are, I think, the best bet, I think. Good cost/MB, pretty reliable (when compared to tape/CD etc.) and quick. Should the worst happen, there are also a wide range of tools/services for getting some/all of the data off them again.

I'd avoid ones you 'move about' too much (such as a caddy-based one), each time you move them is just another opportunity (however small) for them to break.

A RAID is worth considering too, if you've the money for it. When I finish paying for the latest house-move, I'll be upgrading our server to either to RAID1 or 5, depending what else has broken in the meantime.

If it's _really_ important data, consider storing it in multiple places (not just HD and CD, but off-site too if you can manage it).

 

[phlash]

ATM I use a little Java app wot I wrote that creates ZIP files of each users home directory (while simultaneously nuking all the crud in Local Settings/Temp and other caches - hence the need to write a program, it also skips files that are unreadable - thanks NTFS). This usually results in <5GB of ZIPs which fit on a DVD-RW. I normally run this every couple of weeks.

In addition to these personal backups we have a quantity of media files that are our own creations, and these get backed up to a 2nd DVD-RW.

Finally, I too have a ~100 GB of files that although not my lifes work, would be a bit annoying to lose, however there is no backup for these right now.

The plan is to get a Buffalo Terastation, enable RAID on it and stick most of our files on that as a fast central store (especailly the media files!). Then for backup we'll plug in a cheap 250GB USB2.0 drive every couple of weeks, copy everything we want across and put it back in the offsite store (also know as someone else's house / garage). Might still take DVD-RW backups of personal data for secondary protection...