Backing up my computer files -- How?

[esrice]

My home computer is aay old and an upgrade is definitely going to be needed in the near future.

What is the best way to not only transfer all of my pictures and videos over, but to also keep a running backup in the event of a total loss? What do you guys use?

 

[indykid]

I have an external hard drive that I use.

I also was able to save files on an old computer by using a second internal hard drive. The original drive would not boot, but the drive was still spinning so I know it didn't crash. I installed the second drive, and booted off of it. The second drive became the "C" drive and the original was accessible as a "D" drive with all data available even though the drive was unbootable.

 

[rockhopper46038]

I also have an external drive, but a lot of people use

Online Backup

or similar online back-up services.

 

[Drunken Yak inc]

Apple has something called "time machine". It records every file on your computer on to an external hardrive (thats also a router) called the "time capsule" and updates it with every file change you make. For instance, let's say you delete a file off your computer, then 6 months goes by and you realize you need that file. Well then you just go into time machine, go back 6 months and grab that file, email, program etc. hit the restore button and the file is back on your computer. And when you want to upgrade, you just hook your new computer up to the time capsule and every little thing gets transferred to your new computer. Its really unbelievable how often it comes in handy.

However that doesn't help you at all if your on a windows machine.

 

[Jay]

I picked up a 1TB external drive from Best Buy for under $100. I use the back-up routine included with most all versions of Windows. It works well, and you've already paid for it. Do a bit of reading on the different methods used for back-ups... full, incremental, differential.... not complex at all, it's just a matter of what fits your requirements best.

 

[esrice]

but a lot of people use

Online Backup

or similar online back-up services.

Anyone here use one of these services?

Apple has something called "time machine".

Is there a similar program for Windows?

 

[Drunken Yak inc]

No, there's not anything similar for windows, but I wouldn't doubt it in the near future.

 

[Steelman]

Online/offsite backup for the things you CAN'T lose. Online Backup, Data Backup & Remote Backup Solutions | Mozy

External hard drive for freeing up space on primary drive/temp backups.


Most folks leave the external drive connected to their machine all the time. So the same power surge/spilled drink/incontinent chimpanzee will probably get both in one shot.

 

[Yeah]

How much data are we talking?

Your offsite upload speed is likely awful and any large backup will take painfully long. An external hard drive would be much more straightforward, and for future critical offsite backups Dropbox offers straight forward OS integrated file management.

 

[esrice]

How much data are we talking?

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

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

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.

I've been through all kinds of exercises in the last 30 years, including a stack of floppies that would stun an ox, funky tape formats, and recovering the contents of a drive by replacing the circuit board on one that'd died.

Capacities seesawed back and forth between storage and backup for a while, but storage surpassed backup permanently long ago. Drives are orders of magnitude more reliable than they were years ago, and I don't generate much that's valuable enough to waste the time backing it up, so I don't, just save some stuff to 8G flash cards. Those blow my mind.

 

[gvbcraig]

I've been using Carbonite for about half a year. I really like it.

It took about a week to do the initial download, then it only downloads new files or files that have changed. It works in the background so you never notice it.

One of the best benefits is that you can access your files from anywhere.
I have accessed my files from work and while traveling. Worked really well for that.

 

[Yeah]

Just 70GB.

If you have Verizon FIOS you should be all right, especially if you temporarily bump up to one of the parity packages. If you have a typical residential connection with a sustained upload speed of around 512k, 70GB would take a couple of weeks to push. And that is if nothing goes wrong, which is unlikely.

You might want to check your sustained upload speed at one of the test sites, and run it through a transfer calculator for 70 GB.

 

[the1kidd03]

I would recommend using an external hard drive for transition to new computer.....once that is acquired use an online back up system so that you don't have to remember to back anything up...but remember, you get what you pay for...and as with ANYTHING that involves the internet...there are always vulnerabilities which certain people will exploit and so I wouldn't recommend allowing important files to back up online if you don't want it to become the worlds' business

 

[Double T]

External hd FTW!!!

They can be had very cheap, and it's all copy and paste from there.

 

[Drunken Yak inc]

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.

I've been through all kinds of exercises in the last 30 years, including a stack of floppies that would stun an ox, funky tape formats, and recovering the contents of a drive by replacing the circuit board on one that'd died.

Capacities seesawed back and forth between storage and backup for a while, but storage surpassed backup permanently long ago. Drives are orders of magnitude more reliable than they were years ago, and I don't generate much that's valuable enough to waste the time backing it up, so I don't, just save some stuff to 8G flash cards. Those blow my mind.

Do you remember the good old days of the 100mb zip drives? Then came the huge 1gig jazz drives lol. I currently have an Iomega 1tb back up drive for my windows cad station at work. I went with Iomega just out of nostalgia.

 

[Mike_Indy]

I use a raid array and external HD. That means all is good as long as the housemismsafe. There are a few good offsite storage services now that are pricing it so the $$$ is more appealing to the home user. I use Barracuda at the office. Currently looking into an option for home provider.

Many of the external HD include backup software. Iomega makes a good one.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I go back to when a 5MB drive set you back a few thousand, and you'd seriously consider sharing one between a few systems. Megabytes? OMG, how could you ever fill that? Are you kidding?

 

[hooky]

External HD and Memeo backup software here. The initial backup will run most of the day and then it will keep track of files that are added or change. You just plug the HD back in and it catches up.

As luck would have it, the reminder popped up as I was typing this. It's been a week since I plugged the HD into my laptop.

 

[public servant]

I picked up a 1TB external drive from Best Buy for under $100. I use the back-up routine included with most all versions of Windows. It works well, and you've already paid for it. Do a bit of reading on the different methods used for back-ups... full, incremental, differential.... not complex at all, it's just a matter of what fits your requirements best.

^^^

This. I've got a 1TB external drive that does the back-ups automatically every morning at 03:00. Piece of cake.

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