Backing up my computer files -- How?

[revsaxon]

Backup to a tape library, as nothing outlives tapes. Hard-drives simply don't have a 25+ year shelf life. For 70gb you could even get away with using a single VXA-2 drive (about 30$ on ebay, very old tech but it works)

To do my backups I use a software package called Bacula. It lets me back up my laptop, desktop, media-server and several other infrastructure machines (DNS, SVN, MySQL, LDAP, etc) to a tape library connected to another machine on my network. Works really well, lets me do differential backups (only archive the changes, no need to back up all 7.2TB every night), and makes recovery a breeze.

No matter what you end up doing, be it a big hard-drive, tapes, or a cloud based service, TEST YOUR BACKUPS. Ive seen more people loose all their data because they assumed the backups were good, but never tested them. At home I do a bi-monthly recovery test, and at work we do it on the 1st of every month.

 

[revsaxon]

Only thing big enough to back up a whole hard drive these days is another hard drive. If you're selective with your backup (I mean, you don't need to back up your OS or apps) you can put it on an optical drive, like a CDRW, or a big flash card. Think about it, a 1TB drive absolutely dwarfs a writeable DVD. It would take well over a hundred to back it up, and probably 80% of your time.

Not true! LTO-5 Tape drives hold 1.5TB natively. Turn on the compression and you can realistically hold 4TB+ on one (depending on what your storing obviously. Text based files compress way better than say a movie). Not cheap by any means, but orders of magnitude more reliable than hard-drives.

 

[Benny]

Just 70GB. Mostly personal photos, videos, and files.

That's it? Go buy several external HDs so you can back that stuff up more than once.

If it hasn't already been said, don't get one of the (for lack of a better term) 'self-contained' EHDs that don't require a power source. They are WAY harder to work on if something goes wrong.

In other words, don't get one of these:

Get one of these:

(Disregard the brands in both pictures, they were for visual reference only)

 

[sepe]

I've got 2 external drives. Western Digital My Book Essentials (500gb and a 1tb). Perfect for backing up and I also have some stuff backed up on dvds and cds as well. Cheap and portable. Could always get a smaller one if you really wanted to protect your back ups by backing up the pics and whatever else and storing it in a safe while having a bigger one that you use to back up the data (and routine back ups) so you can access without digging out the safe back up.

 

[Sailor]

I use both carbonite and and ext hd. If you do not have your ext hd offsite your screwed if your house burns down.

 

[esrice]

Thanks for all the helpful tips! Good thread.

 

[iChokePeople]

Or you could just make it a REAL upgrade... to a mac, and use time machine like you KNOW you wish you could.

 

[esrice]

Or you could just make it a REAL upgrade... to a mac, and use time machine like you KNOW you wish you could.

I've always used a PC, but I'm not averse to going MAC. If I did "convert", how would I get my files from my PC to the MAC?

 

[iChokePeople]

I've always used a PC, but I'm not averse to going MAC. If I did "convert", how would I get my files from my PC to the MAC?

If you do it BEFORE the windows machine crashes, you can just move them on your home wifi network or cable them together. Or, if you buy whatever hard drive (including time capsule, if you go that way) ahead of time, you can put them there, then copy them to the mac if you like.

For the record, though, Seagate makes a pretty good 'solution' for those handicapped by windows. I think it's called 'replica'. I honestly think Time Machine is the backup tool to beat for home users, though -- the setup is two clicks, literally, and it's totally intuitive and VERY fool-resistant (NOTHING is foolproof, and if you disagree you clearly are NOT in the IT field...) Windows 8 will include a feature that's an attempt to copy Time Machine.

IMHO, backup for home users should be something they can forget about and know that they're protected. Time Machine does that like nothing else.

 

[esrice]

If you do it BEFORE the windows machine crashes, you can just move them on your home wifi network or cable them together. Or, if you buy whatever hard drive (including time capsule, if you go that way) ahead of time, you can put them there, then copy them to the mac if you like.

So I could still load my files from my PC to this MAC backup thing?

And I started a separate thread for those who think I should go MAC --- > https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/break_room/175545-pc_guy_here_should_i_convert_to_mac.html

 

[WyldeShot]

A lot of people us external hard drive. I personally have a 1 Tb drive that I back all of my files up to. Then I use CrashPlan for my online / off site backup solution.

 

[iChokePeople]

So I could still load my files from my PC to this MAC backup thing?

Yes, absolutely. Time Machine will work great with the Time Capsule described earlier, or with any other external hard drive -- or even a separate internal one, for those so inclined. I don't use Time Capsule, I use a Drobo. It's available via USB cable or WiFi to all of the computers in my house. Or in my yard fairly near my house. Or in my barn. Windows miscreants can use it, too... It just isn't an automatic, robust backup solution for them like it is with Time Machine.

 

[ATOMonkey]

I have two 1TB external drives. One is a mirror of the other. Both are unplugged when not in use.

I also have linux boot discs as that has saved my bacon more than once, as linux will still let you access your drives as long as they're still physically ok. Stupid windows OS is just a ticking time bomb.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Not true! LTO-5 Tape drives hold 1.5TB natively. Turn on the compression and you can realistically hold 4TB+ on one (depending on what your storing obviously. Text based files compress way better than say a movie). Not cheap by any means, but orders of magnitude more reliable than hard-drives.

Wow, shows how well I've been keeping up. I kinda gave up on tape a long time ago because it wasn't keeping up, but stands to reason they'd be working on that too.